“I’ve agreed to marry a woman with almost nothing to offer.” I leaned in, our faces barely an inch apart. “My sanity must be questioned. Just as your loyalty must be.”
“No,” she replied, doing her best to push me away. However, I didn’t budge.
“Your father was a liar—”
SLAP.
“Call my father a liar to my face and I will slit your throat!” she threatened, breathing through her nose.
“Your father was—”
SLAP. “Shut up!”
My cheek burned. However, I ignored it, grabbing onto her wrist before she’d make her third mistake.
“Your father—”
“My father loved my mother the same way your father loved yours!” She snapped, and I froze, just staring at her, so annoyed, I wanted to bash her head in.
“Don’t ever…” I squeezed her wrist. “EVER. Put my parents on the level of yours.”
“Why?” She stood up to me. “Because they were rich, famous, and powerful? While mine were poor, typical, and insignificant? Did it matter, though? My mother died suddenly like yours—”
“I’m warning you!” I grabbed onto her throat. However, she didn’t back down. She held her head higher.
“And my father was heartbroken like yours. He died with her and left me walking around with a shell of a person until he finally died too…at least you know your father went on his own terms.”
“ENOUGH!” I slammed her into the door.
She just glared at me. “If you got a message from your father and he told you the person who killed your mother wasn’t who you thought it was…but was someone else, would you question it? My father loved my mother, and he’d rather die than lie to me. The moment I saw that video I knew it was the truth. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I just couldn’t accept it. At first because it meant he allowed me to hate the wrong people. He allowed me to trust the wrong ones too and that is how my whole life was ruined! For the last seven years I’ve been in hell because he let me trust them. Because they were family. Do you know what that feels like? Believe me, it hurts much more than being slammed into the door by you.”
Letting go of her neck, I took a step back. She inhaled deeply and then walked toward the vanity mirror, wiping the corners of her eyes and inspecting her neck.
“You don’t trust me, fine,” she whispered, reapplying her makeup. “But I’m sure the only reason you chose me is to stop the rebellion that’s growing…so I’m not worthless. And I’m here because I want Cillian, Elroy, Rory, Shay, my dad’s old friend Michael, along with a guard at the prison dead. That is my list.”
Annoyed with her and myself, I lifted her chin up to see her neck.
“This won’t happen again.”
“I don’t care,” she shot back. “My list. Can you do it or not?”
I simply nodded, lifting my arm for her to take. She glared at me before linking arms.
“I should have believed you the first time. You’re not romantic at all,” she muttered when I opened the door…only to be met with Toby’s confused stupid face as he glanced between us.
Just then his words came back to mind. “You have a tendency to come off…cold, daunting, and threatening.”
I didn’t come off as anything…I simply was. I had to be.
IVY
The cameras were nearly blinding as we walked down the grand staircase, forcing me to grip onto him tighter until we reached the last step where we both posed for the photographer. Forcing myself to smile, I remembered what Nari had said about queens smiling even when they wanted to scream. Who’d think I’d have to do that so soon. I could feel everyone staring, whispering…
“Ivy, you look beautiful.” His grandmother, Evelyn, was the first to approach us when the photographer moved aside, dressed in a champagne-colored gown. She hugged me, forcing me to release Ethan.
“Thank you. I’m so glad I’m worthy to be seen in your presence,” I whispered, hugging her back. When we pulled back the corners of her lips turned up in a small smile.
“Do I get hello, Grandmother? After all, it is my birthday.” He drew her attention to that, and Evelyn rolled her eyes.