Page 35 of Desperate Vows

CLAIRE

It was Thursday, and I was trying not to think about my wedding that was fast approaching on Saturday. I'd been doing class assignments in the condo the past few days. I emailed my professors Monday to let them know I was having family issues and that I’d return to class in a week, which I hoped was true. I apologized that I would miss classes and begged them to work with me. I was extra thankful that I’d worked hard since school started, and all my professors allowed it.

Lucas made a good argument about being out in the open when we knew Marco Moretti had already sent someone to kidnap me. Not only would I be putting myself in danger, but my classmates would be as well.

I didn't want anyone to get hurt because of me, so I was sitting on the couch, wrapping up a paper that was due the next day, when Thea drifted in.

How many women had she saved since the Kalantzis’ began their crusade against trafficking? My chest swelled with pride for her and her siblings. She was everything I wasn’t. Tall, beautiful, smart, and confident. Brave.

“You need to get dressed.” She floated to the chair adjacent to me and perched on the end. “We’re going out.”

“Out? Lucas?—”

“Lucas is fine with it. I’ll be with you. Remy and Dimitris will be close by if anything happens, but I can’t in good conscience let you get married without a bachelorette party.”

To say I had zero interest would be an understatement. “Oh, no. I’m okay.”

She leveled her eyes at me. “Claire, do I need to get snippy?”

I set my laptop aside and moved closer to her. “I really don’t like clubs.” Or people rubbing against me when I didn’t know where their hands had been.

“Then we won’t go to a club. We’ll go to a nice restaurant and drink until we need to be carried home.”

“I’m only twenty.”

“Not tonight, you aren’t.” She smiled. “Now, come on.” She clapped her hands. “Get dressed.”

Thea wouldn’t take no for an answer, and honestly, I was a little scared of her. “All right.” I stood and walked to the closet.

His sister was right on my heels. “Been staying in the master, huh?” When I looked over my shoulder, she was wiggling her eyebrows.

“Well, yes, but I don’t know him well enough for that.” Nor did I trust him enough for that. I stopped where my clothes hung and browsed. I had no idea what to wear. “Where are we going?”

“Where do you want to go? It’s your bachelorette party.” She looked at her phone. “Aunt Helen is meeting us wherever we decide.”

“Helen’s coming?”

“Helen, our cousin Athena, Marianna, Elana, and Ari’s bride-to-be, Anna.” Thea lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how Anna will behave, but if she causes trouble, I’ll take care of it.”

I turned from the clothes, my mouth agape. “Ari’s getting married?”

Thea snickered. “Yep. The Kalantzis’ are uniting with the Georgious.”

“That’s good, right?” I wanted it to be. For Lucas. Though, I wondered if this other family knew about the exploits of the Kalantzis’.

“It should be. They’ve taken some hits in the past few years, and this union strengthens both of us.”

Turning back to the clothes, I began looking through them again. “I don’t know a lot about my father’s business. I’ve heard him complain about vigilantes, and if I could, I’d personally finance them. I hate him.”

“What happened to make him treat you the way he does?”

“He thinks my mom cheated on him.” I looked at her over my shoulder and smiled. “She was like you. Graceful and beautiful.” I returned my focus to finding an outfit. “She was Brazilian and heavily took after her mom. No one would have known she was mixed race. She would say that she never cheated on him, but my father didn’t believe her.”

“What happened to her?”

I was suddenly overwhelmed with a downpour of grief. “She had cancer. It started in her breasts, and she had a mastectomy and all the treatments that go with it. It was in remission until her fourth checkup. There was a mass in her lungs. She fought it for a year.

“You’d think I’d hate Franklin Benoit because of how he treated me, but…” I shook my head. “It wasn’t that. It was the way he treated my beautiful dying mom. If I’m ever given the chance—I want him to suffer. I want to put him through all the misery he put my mom through. I want him to beg me to make it stop and milk his agony until there’s nothing left but a dried-up shell.”

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