Page 87

She walked over to the table and looked at me.

“Well, you look alive.”

I smirked. “Morning to you too.”

“You’re eating, drawing, and taking your medicine. It sounds like you’re on the road to queen status.”

“I’m trying.”

Vivi sat across from me, and I knew she hadn’t come all the way over here to congratulate me for eating breakfast.

“Your mother and father keep calling me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why?”

“Because my son won’t answer them. They want to move forward with the public proposal.”

I stopped coloring and looked at her.

“Public?”

“I think they’re right about moving forward.”

“Of course you do.”

Vivi ignored my attitude.

“My father, Marcel, is dying, and everyone keeps forgetting that this agreement has a timeline. The marriage has to be locked in within nine months, and two have already passed. You have seven left.”

I looked down at my sketchbook because hearing an actual countdown made everything feel more real.

“I don’t want to be known publicly as a Laveau.”

“That’s part of showing the alliance.”

I thought about it for a moment before answering.

“I’ll do it, but I don’t want my face shown.”

“You won’t have to show it.”

I released a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.

“Okay. I hate this shit.”

Vivi’s expression changed, and for once, I didn’t feel as if I was sitting across from another person trying to tell me what I owed my family.

“I know.”

She reached across the table and squeezed my hand.

“You didn’t ask for this life.”

“No, I definitely didn’t.”

Vivi stayed with me for a few more minutes before getting up.

“I have a condo in this building, so I’ll be around Paris for a while. If you need anything while Ares is gone, Tommy can call me.”