Page 45 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

This hadn’t been a lunch. It was nothing more than a trap dressed in crystal and white linen. I kept my face composed and spine straight, as if I hadn’t just been invited to trade one cage for another.

My father hadn’t sent me here to consider marriage. He’d sent me here to learn what happened when I refused him. And he had sent Goran to watch it because even if he didn’t know about us, he knew that I felt safe with him. He wanted that understood. He wanted both of us to know that it could be stripped away in a second.

My father wanted me to remember exactly where he stood in my world.

I swallowed, and it hurt like I had consumed something sharp. I turned toward Goran, finally lifting my eyes to meet his.

And I saw it—everything he hid while doing his job.

Violence, barely contained beneath restraint. Fury. A promise. Not fear. Not helplessness, but calculation.

The kind that made men like my father nervous. Goran was loyal and brave, but he wasn’t a pushover. And he didn’t follow blindly.

I didn’t say a word.

For the first time since last night, the truth settled into my bones. This wasn’t about a ring or proposal. It was about control.

Only one question remained. What would my father do when I refused to put it on?

Chapter

Fourteen

GORAN

Kaylani refused the car Julian had sent.

Now we were in Dimitri’s limo, and I hated every inch of it. I wished we had taken Nathaniel’s. This one smelled like greed.

That deep yearning for power, influence, and accumulated wealth. The kind of power that expected obedience before the command was ever spoken. The kind of influence that went beyond a family or even a region, touching everyone around the globe. The kind of wealth that could build or destroy in an instant. The kind of wealth that clearly stated any crime could be committed with enough money backing you.

Kaylani sat beside me, hands folded neatly in her lap, and I broke my own rules by reaching for one of them. She looked up at me, and I saw the trepidation in her eyes. She was always honest with me. Even if outside this car, she would harden into steel, and no one would ever see her fears.

“It’s going to be okay,” I promised.

She shook her head. “I don’t know, Goran. This guy is different.”

I knew all too well what she meant.

“I agree, but I’m here, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“That’s what worries me most.” She squeezed my hand and took a steadying breath.

“I wish I could kiss you,” I whispered.

“Tonight, after the ballet, stay with me. I know a way you can sneak in.” She ran her finger over the ring on my right hand. “Please, Goran.”

“You know I can’t resist you. But I’m meeting Nathaniel at the club, remember?”

Her eyes dropped.

“I’ll text him and see if we can push it to tomorrow.”

Her entire face lit up, and my heart danced in my chest.

“I should have just told my father to shove it and stood Julian up. I don’t want to be here,” Kaylani said, as the car slowed and the theater came into view.

It was lit like a jewel cut for those who believed beauty existed for their consumption. Cameras waited to capture the famous before they walked inside. A way for those who wished to live in this world to do so vicariously. Security stood in neat lines. Velvet ropes divided the powerful from the hopeful.