AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My stomach tightens at the word “dangerous.”
“Madison wouldn’t have ever married him,” I admit to her. “Even before she ran away, she was adamant about wanting to go off on her own, to do all those things you mentioned. It’s the same with Cass. She hates being told what to do, and will refuse any order for the hell of it. So that only leaves me.”
“There has to be some other way for Lochlan and Dante to become trusted allies than a wedding, though.” She blows out a breath that sends strands of her long, light blonde hair flying out of her face. “I was once in your shoes, not given a choice.”
“You married someone before my dad?” I ask in surprise.
“No. I was…” She cringes. “Dante will probably kill me for telling you this, but I was supposed to marry your father when I turned eighteen.”
“Holy shit! What…how…” I can’t close my gaping mouth. Vanessa and my dad were supposed to get married decades ago?
“You know who my father is. Was,” she goes on to explain. “He made a deal with Dante’s father without asking either of us. Dante flat out refused to marry me. He would’ve had to wait two years since I was only sixteen, but he said no. My father got pissed and put out a hit on him. I ran away from home like Madison did right after that, which may have been what saved Dante’s life. My father was intent on killing him for the insult of his rejection.”
“So, you ran away and got pregnant with Cole after my dad’s rejection?”
“Yes. The reason I told you about all that was so that you would know that your father once refused an arranged marriage. He would let you out of this one, Sophie. All you have to do is say the word.”
Pacing back and forth in front of the row of dressing room doors, I think over everything Vanessa just told me while chewing on my bottom lip.
My mind is blown.
Her and my father were supposed to marry each other when they were younger. She could’ve been my mother. Except, well, I wouldn’t be me if I had a different mother. But they didn’t go through with the wedding. Instead, Vanessa struggled alone as a single mother raising her son for twenty years, constantly looking over her shoulder, waiting for her father to track her down. And my dad ended up having me and my sisters with three different women. Women I don’t think he ever loved. He felt responsible for them, like he feels responsible for us, but that’s probably it.
And yet…after everything the two of them went through, Vanessa came back to work for my dad for whatever reason.
“So, about, what? Twenty-one years later you somehow still ended up married to my father? But this time it was a decision that the two of you both made voluntarily because you loved each other?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” It feels like a small weight has been lifted off my chest. While I was willing to marry Lochlan for the fear of the unknown if nothing else, finding out about my dad and Vanessa’s history gives me…hope that I won’t regret my decision to leap without looking just for the thrill of it. Smiling at my stepmother, I say, “Thank you for telling me, Vanessa.”
“Does that mean you want to take more time to think this marriage over?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Your story did the opposite of convincing me to back out of the wedding.”
“What?” she exclaims as she gets to her feet. Since I’m about six inches taller than her, she has to look up at me to ask, “How is that possible?”
“You and my dad belonged together. It was fate.”
Her confused scowl softens at that comment. “Fate. That’s what Dante said too. We were destined to be together.”
“Exactly! Don’t you get it, Vanessa? The universe wanted you two to fall in love and spend the rest of your lives together. You were meant to be, even if it took you both two decades to stop fighting it.”
Pointing all that out just has her frowning even harder at me. “Just because it worked out for us in the future doesn’t mean that it will for you and Lochlan. You two are so different.”
“But it could work. The chance of being happy with him is fifty-fifty. The same as any other marriage. Some couples who get married have known each other for years, yet half end up divorced, right?”
“I guess so…” she trails off. Studying my face she says, “So you’re really all in on this, marrying a man you only just met for ten minutes?”
“I don’t want to wait twenty years to end up in the same place. Lochlan may not even be alive in twenty years. You’re lucky my dad was still around.”
“Wow,” Vanessa mutters. “I didn’t even think about it that way, but you’re right. If something had happened to Dante…I could’ve spent the rest of my life alone, without falling in love, and that would’ve been awful.”
“Alright,” the sales lady says when she pushes a rack toward us full of dresses on hangers. “Are we ready to start trying these on?”
