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Eva points to the bag that’s fisted in my hands. “Open your gift.”
“Oh gosh. Yes! I’m going a thousand different directions right now.” I carefully peel open the layers of tissue paper until a long slender box appears.
Tingly energy courses through my fingers as I lift the box. When I do, a lump blossoms in my throat. The trinity necklace is resting on a bed of red rose petals. There’s a new gold chain, soft as silk to touch. “You...” I whisper. There’s a handwritten note on fine stationary.
“You’ve always been mine, something I’ve known in my heart since your eighteenth birthday. Today, we make this happen. I’ll see you when it’s all done. The other charm is in my pocket. It’s brought me luck all these years, I just need for it to protect me one more day. Wear yours, please. I need you safe. My life is nothing without you. Yours always, K.M.”
The sob that tears out of me rends the silence in the limo in two.
I clutch the pendant to my heart, unable to breathe.
Eva’s eyes are wide. “Oh, god. It must have been really good.”
“It is...” I hiccup around the emotion making my heart grow so big I’m going to need another limo to carry the thing. “Can you help me put this on?”
“I’m your girl. Now, don’t mess up your mascara, we got monsters to slay. Then you get to marry the King of the Jungle for real. It’s gonna be a helluva day.”
CHAPTERFORTY-SIX
A flurry of people is scurrying around the massive Catholic church, including a troop of bodyguards that rush me into one of the wings.
Eva leads the way like she’s the queen bee. “Right in here. This is your dressing room.”
My dress is already waiting. I didn’t even see anyone bring it in. Everything is in place. A massive pink bouquet is lying in a velvet-lined box and a pair of ridiculous heels sits on the table.
The mafia wedding might be fake, but what’s happening after puts a big, cheesy grin on my face. “Oh my god.” I’m elated suddenly.
Eva puts some music on her phone’s speaker, and she rushes around helping me into my dress. Murmured voices outside the door grow and grow as the time draws closer.
Eva gets a text. Her eyes spark with excitement. “The church is filling up. T-minus twelve minutes.”
I draw in a breath, purse my lips, and let it out in a slow hiss. It’s supposed to slow down my heart rate. For a few seconds, it works, then the racehorse in my chest takes off again.
When I look at myself in the mirror, my hand automatically goes to my throat. Like it has a million times. The pendant is there. Only, now it’s not a symbol for a dreadful, dark future. It’s hope. Light.
I’m misty as I look down at my dress. It’s incredible. The girls have done everything to make me a fairy princess. For Kieran. My hair looks amazing, but the thing that matters is what’s behind the pendant. Always has been.
Loud banging on my door breaks my trance.
“Kieran’s not supposed to see you,” Eva chides as she strides to the door.
Laughing, I touch the delicate curl beside my temple. “He’s terrible at obeying rules.”
I’m expecting Kieran to stride through the door, but when that doesn’t happen, I call, “Who was it?”
As I look over my shoulder, I turn to stone. The smile on my face falls to the floor and shatters. My father is standing in the doorway.
Of course, he would come to say something to me now. He hasn’t spoken to me in ages, but today he has to do it because it’s his last chance. Because I’ll never step foot in the same zip code as him again.
Part of me is a little shocked. Mostly at the horrible state he’s in. Patrick Coghlan’s face is putrid green and black. His lips are cracked open like the sunbaked desert. When he sneers at me, he reveals a mouthful of morbid silver hardware. Words slurring, he growls, “What are you zzo fucking happy about?”
“Father,” I reply stunned. “Your face.” Crap. I didn’t mean that like it sounds. “I mean, I’m sorry about your face, that’s not why I’m happy.”
He lurches forward, eyes burning two holes in my face. Lifting my chin, clutching my necklace, I squelch the shaking in my legs.
His glittering black eyes lock on my hand where it’s locked around my pendant. “You aren’t zzuppozed to be FUCKING happy. You’ve never dezzerved that and I won’t let it happen.”
The array of greenish colors on his face morphs into garish red, and purple as veins being to pop out everywhere.
