Page 23 of Freeing Lark

Lark laughed bitterly. “Wren doesn’t need me.”

“She needs her family.” Her mother paused. “She’s being attacked.”

Lark’s stomach tightened. Even though she had complicated emotions regarding her family members, those internal feelings did not diminish her desire to shield her baby sister from any potential hurt or distress. Wren had once looked up to Lark. They’d been close despite the thirteen-year age difference. But once Wren entered school and started to learn the right and wrong people to associate with, their relationship had been strained.

“What do you mean?”

“People online are calling her a homewrecker.” Lark closed her eyes. Of course, the internet had discovered the relationship. Or someone had decided to make sure it did. “They are also saying she has a sugar daddy and Bradley is robbing the cradle.”

“Wren is only eighteen,” Lark pointed out.

“She’s an adult.”

“Bradley is thirty-eight.”

“Age is irrelevant.”

Lark rolled her eyes having heard that since Wren had started dating Bradley after she’d broken up with him. “Twenty years isn’t irrelevant.”

“Lark.” Her mother’s voice hardened. “You will not embarrass this family.”

Lark stared at the sculpture sitting on her worktable. A woman made of twisted copper wire. She’d left Bradley after two years together because she couldn’t accept the life her parents had planned for her. Truthfully, she had never been happy when he was near. Their dates had turned into business duties after only a few weeks together. No intimacy. No fun. Just obligations and photo ops. She’d been a tool, a pawn, for both families.

So she’d left. The relationship. The family. The playing board. To save face, they’d simply moved the pieces around. Her younger sister had become the replacement pawn.

“Why does Wren need me at the gala?”

“Because everyone knows you were engaged to Bradley.”

Lark swallowed. “We weren’t officially engaged.”

“You were expected to marry him.”

“By you and Father. I never had a choice.”

“Because it was a good match.”

“For the family.”

“For everyone.”

“No. Not everyone. It was good for the Whitmore Foundation. It was good for Father’s business interests. It was good for your political friends. It had nothing to do with what was good for me.”

Her mother’s voice sharpened. “You were given an opportunity most women would have killed for.”

“And I didn’t want it.”

“You were selfish.” Lark swallowed. She’d heard that word so many times it barely registered anymore. “Now, we need people to see that you support Wren.”

Lark laughed without humor. “You want me to attend a gala so Washington society can watch me smile beside the man you tried to force me to marry and my eighteen-year-old sister who is now with him.”

“You make everything sound so ugly.”

“Because it is.”

“You turned tail and ran, Lark.” The words landed like a slap. “You refused to do your duty.”

“My duty?”