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“Yes. I think so.” I replied, but I wasn’t sure.
If I hadn’t cared enough to really find out...
That’s not love.
Now, mom was pressuring me into going wedding dress shopping and the thought made me sick. I couldn’t tell anyone, but I was grieving. Grieving a man I could never be with.
One day, Decker would show up in this social circle I belonged to and I’d have to watch him fall in love with someone else and start a family.
Watch the sparkle in those silver eyes directed elsewhere and those big arms wrap around a woman who chose to love him back.
Something I wasn’t able to do.
“You shouldn’t marry him if you’re not in love, Isabelle.” Mia had said, surprising me. If anyone understood family obligations, I would have thought it was her.
“It’s not like your family, Mia. Todd is a good man. We grew up together. Not exactly childhood sweethearts, but we’re friends. That’s the basis of a relationship.”
“No. That’s called a friendship.” She said. “Two different things. You can be friendswithyour lover. But you also need to have love, chemistry, and respect.”
“We do,” I’d argued.
“Then why is he asking you to abstain?”
I pressed my lips together.
“I don’t know,” I confessed, letting out a huge sigh and deciding to tell her everything. “We both have trust funds. His much bigger than mine. He threatened to call it off, which would devastate my father.”
Something I wasn’t willing to do. To see his face so disappointed in me. I knew Todd was just controlling and once we were married he’d have nothing else to manipulate me with.
Plus, I’d changed.
I wasn’t the same person I was before I was kidnapped.
“So let him be devastated. This is your life,” Mia cried. “Trust me, after getting shot, I am living my life every day as if it’s my last.”
I had glanced down at her huge bowl of fries. “I can see that.”
We shared a smile.
“Just think about it,” Mia said, before popping one of those fries in her mouth.
I had been thinking about it. I just couldn’t see a way out of it without my father being disappointed and disowning me.
––––––––
“LET’S GO,” CONNOR says, tossing back his whisky. He glances down at Mia. “You sure you’re feeling up to this?”
She nods.
“As long as we have a lot of security.”
I suppress a shiver, but Sienna rubs my back, picking up on my response.
“Two cars. Eight armed men,” Connor replies.
“And three Marines,” Mack says.
I smile at him, and he winks. There could be four, but I don’t say that out loud.
