Page 18 of Shattered Vows

His head tilts as he studies me. “So you pulled a runaway bride because I have more money than God—that’s your excuse?”

I press my lips together and nod.

Kol lays his palms flat on the table, leaning in. “If you’re going to tell half-truths, you have to do a helluva better job.”

I swallow, unable to tear my eyes away from his gaze. “It’s the truth.”

“It may be part of the truth. So let’s start there. How did you find out who I was?”

Panic flares through my veins. I didn’t think this far ahead. What if he seeks revenge on not just me? My head shakes back and forth of its own volition. “It doesn’t matter.”

He assesses me for a moment. “It matters to you, which means the rat is your mother. Unless you lied to me about how sheltered she kept you.”

My eyes widen.

“That’s right, sweetheart. You’re still a fucking open book to me.” He straightens and crosses his arms again, staring at me.

The venomous sound of the word sweetheart from his lips makes my stomach sour. He used to say that word with so much love and reverence.

“What else did your mother tell you?”

I don’t know what to do. But if I don’t tell him, I’m sure he’s going to leave me in this tower for however long until I admit the truth. Maybe the best thing is to tell him and see what happens. Maybe he’ll let me go home once he knows why I left that day.

Or maybe he’ll kill you.

I look into his eyes for any remnants of the man from four years ago and see none.

“What else, Rapsody?”

Tightness wraps around my chest, and I close my eyes and exhale a few deep breaths, calming my anxiety. When I open my eyes, I meet his gaze. “She told me that you killed your father.”

Kol blinks and blinks again. Surprise lines his features, but it disappears instantly. “What exactly did she say?”

“First, you have to promise me that you won’t hurt her. You have to give me your word.” I’m not even sure I can trust his word, but I figure I should ask for it. Maybe it will at least make him think twice before he does anything.

He nods.

That’s as good as I’ll get, I suppose.

“First she told me who you really were.” I’ve listened to him berate me for causing him pain, but he acts as though what he did to me—his lies—had no effect. Time for him to realize that’s not true. “I’d never felt so stupid in my life. Here I’d agreed to marry you after only weeks, so sure of my decision, of us, and then I found out I didn’t know who you really are. That you’d lied to me, and I ate your story up, so desperate for a life, for love, that I wasn’t even willing to question you.”

Kol opens his mouth to say something, but I don’t want to hear his stupid excuses anymore, so I raise my hand and continue.

“She said it was proof of what she was always telling me. That the world is filled with lies and deception, evil people who only want to harm others. And you know what? I didn’t listen to her. I told her that I did know who you were and that there must be an explanation for what she was saying. That I would talk to you and find out, and that if she just met you, she’d see how wonderful you were.” I shake my head at my own naïveté. I was so unwilling to think the worst of Kol that I was willing to start our marriage with a lie.

I can’t sit here anymore, so I stand, wrapping my arms around myself, and pace the room under Kol’s watchful eye.

“When she couldn’t convince me to leave you, she pulled out old news articles about your father’s death. They all said that you or one of your brothers was believed to be the one who killed him, but that either authorities couldn’t prove it, or they had been bought off. Article after article from reputable news agencies all said the same thing. And when I googled the Voss family and Kol Voss, there was link after link to stories about you or your family that painted a picture of a person so different. I realized then that she was right about all of it. I was just a naïve little girl willing to believe anything from the first man who paid me the smallest amount of attention.”

I walk over to the dresser, pick up one of the large elastic bands bought along with my new wardrobe and braid my hair.

“We’d only known each other a couple of weeks, but what I felt for you was real. I thought I’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t exist. My entire life, my mother sheltered me and told me how dangerous the world was. How it was full of liars and thieves and people who only want to hurt me and take advantage of me. After everything she told me about you, for the first time in a long time, I felt like she was right.” I finish the braid and tie off the bottom.

Kol’s footsteps sound behind me, and I turn around. “Why didn’t you just ask me about it?”

He doesn’t deny the accusation, so I was right to leave him.

“Because she explained to me that a man like you, so used to getting whatever you desire, so dangerous and violent, wouldn’t accept being left. My mom thought it was better for us to disappear—change our names and start our lives elsewhere. She knew you’d be angry and come looking for me. Guess she was right about that too.”

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