Page 131 of Outcast’s Vow

“We’ll have you two forcibly divorced,” Father says. “It’ll be swift and clean.”

“You can’t do that.”

“It’s the one thing I can do as Supreme Elder. I told you, didn’t I? You had to keep Baptiste in line, daughter. But you didn’t. And now you will have to pay the price. As was agreed before you took part in the Chase.”

Yes. The negotiation for my future. The negotiation I thought I had won.

I never thought it would come to this.

And there is nothing I can do.

49

SYLVIE

There is a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I say.

The door slowly creaks open.

It’s Mother. Celeste Levine.

“How are you doing, Sylvie?” she asks from the doorway. There is concern etched on her Botox-maintained face.

A full decade younger than my father, she is in her early fifties but has had the time, money, and power to fight against the aging process with all the medical and natural treatments available to her. Her hair is champagne blonde, still totally impeccable, worn in loose waves. She was once, when she was my age, a blonde bombshell, famed for her supermodel looks and piercing intellect.

And she’s spent her married years – now the majority of her life – as a kept woman. No job. No career. No interests other than her body, maintaining a mansion, and being good for her husband.

I’m sitting on my bed, book in my hand. I don’t know what to do with myself in this empty mansion other than read trashy airport fiction and try not to think about my predicament, otherwise I fear I will lose my mind.

“How do you think I’m going, Mother? My husband disappeared without a word and I have been pulled out of my passion and my father is currently trying to break my marriage and ruin my life at the same time.”

I hate how vicious I sound, but I make no effort to bite back my tongue.

Mother glides across the room to sit down next to me on the bed. We’re close, but we feel so far apart.

It’s been nearly a week since Baptiste ghosted me, and Father’s moved fast. Through the Castaways’ networks, he’s taken possession of Baptiste’s penthouse. He’s taken possession of my husband’s claim over me. He’s taken possession of my life. He’s taken possession of everything.

And my husband? Gone.

I miss him. I wish I could hold him again. Bury my face in his chest. Smell his calming, manly scent.

Feel safe again.

With Baptiste, everything was okay. And now, without him, everything is falling apart.

I know I should be stronger. I know I should fight back against my father and try to regain my independence, but what can I do against a man who only knows how to control?

I lost the negotiation.

“There is only one man to blame in all of this,” Mother says softly, sitting next to me and regarding me like I’m a helpless bird with broken wings, “and that is your husband, not your father. Elwood is trying to do the best by you. For you. The fact is, Baptiste should’ve followed the Castaways’ orders.”

“That would’ve meant cheating on me.”

I can’t recognize my voice anymore. There’s no fight left in it.

Mother sighs.