Senator Hartley points at me immediately. "That's exactly what it is. The spirit!"
"Now, it's a bit soon—" my father begins.
"Next month," Senator Hartley announces, already decided. "We begin preparations immediately. A wedding in a month, that's bold, that's the story we want."
"Father—" James says sharply.
"The girl is right," Senator Hartley replies. "We move forward. We forget the past scandal."
My father looks at me and then at Senator Hartley and he nods.
"We will give you both space then," Senator Hartley says with a twinkle in his eyes.
I sit beside the bed and James looks at me and neither of us says anything until his father and my father take the conversation out to the corridor, their voices fading down the hall.
James looks at me.
"I heard you had Alana sent away," he says. His voice is flat and careful. "What is your game?"
I widen my eyes and bring my hand to my chest. "What was I supposed to do? She was going to take you from me and I just couldn't let that happen, I?—"
"Stop," he cuts in. He shifts against the pillows and winces and his jaw tightens. "Stop the act." His eyes are hard. "You did this to me. You made me this way."
I lean forward slightly in the chair and I drop the performance just enough for him to see what's underneath it and I say quietly, "Do you want me to call the press and tell them what you tried to do to me in that room? Because I will. I have the recording of you and my cousin. You spiked my drink and?—
"Don't—" he starts.
"Don't what?" I ask pleasantly.
He closes his mouth.
"You are completely useless to your father right now in every way that matters to him. The best thing you can do, the only thing you can do, is marry me and let me take care of you." I tilt my head. "I'll be a very good wife."
"I don't know what you're planning," he says through his teeth, "but you won't get away with it. Whatever you think you're doing, I will find out and I will?—"
I reach out and I punch his bandaged leg.
He screams and the sound fills the room, his face has gone completely white and his breath is coming in short furious gasps and I sit back in my chair and I laugh.
"Your father probably gave everyone the afternoon off," I tell him pleasantly, glancing toward the closed door. "Privacy for the young couple."
"You're insane," he gasps. "You're completely insane, I'll get to the bottom of whatever you're planning, I swear I will?—"
"Shut up and be good," I reply.
I stand up and I smooth my dress and I look at him one more time, enjoying the fury in his face that has nowhere useful to go, and then I walk out of the room and I pull the door gently closed behind me.
He and I know his words were useless to his father just as mine were to mine. This wedding is happening, and I'm not opposed to it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nathalie
The house is completely still at two in the morning.
I listen to it for a moment from the doorway of my room before I pick up my keys and I walk down the stairs and I slip out through the side entrance that the night security rarely watches because it leads to the kitchen garden that nobody uses after dark.
My car is parked on the street. I parked it where no one would notice it. I pull out slowly and I drive but I know I am being followed. My father has eyes on me these days, twenty-four seven. He isn't taking risks with his relationship with the Senator this time. It's been a week since I said I was going to marry James and he wasn't going to have me ruin things for him again.
