Page 139 of Vengeful Vows

I’ve come a long way from where I started, and I’m so glad this is where the journey brought me.

Home, lying in the arms of the man I love. My father’s enemy.

32

DECLAN

A week passes and Bree and I are happier than ever. There’s only one problem—I want more.

I want all of her, all the time. I can’t get enough, and I need us to have a do-over. I don’t want our wedding memories to be of her being forced. I want a wedding story we can tell our grandchildren.

But Bree seems to not want to get married again. I ask her every day, and every single day she tells me she doesn’t need it, that all she needs is me.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Gray asks as I stand next to him at the courthouse.

I take a deep breath in. “Yeah, I think I do.” I walk up to the clerk. “I’d like to file for divorce.”

“Sorry to hear that, that’ll be three-hundred dollars.”

I slide her the money.

“This seems extreme,” Gray complains.

“Maybe it is, but it's the only way I can get her to marry me again.”

“Are you sure she’s not going to be mad?”

“She’s going to be livid.” I chuckle.

But instead of livid, when I throw the papers down on the bed, Bree looks up at me with her hazel eyes swimming with tears.

“Declan…” Her voice breaks. “Why are you doing this? What have I done?"

“No, no, mo chroí.” I hurry to the bed and draw her into my arms. My heart. My one true love. “You didn’t do a thing. I just... I want to do this for real, Bree. I want you to choose me, and for you to know that I choose you back. I’ll always choose you.”

“I did choose you,” she sobs. “It took me a little while, but I did.”

When she calms down, she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not signing these.”

“Listen.” I take her hands in mine. “I want us to do this right. I want your friends there. Whatever family you have that won’t try to kill me.”

She barks out a laugh at that, and I smile.

“Besides, we can have a longer engagement,” I offer. “Get to know each other.”

She scoffs. “We already know each other inside and out.”

“There’s always more to learn.”

It takes over an hour of talking and insisting that there’s nothing she’s done wrong before Bree signs the papers with a shaking hand.

We file for an uncontested divorce, and it goes through in a week.

Bree’s moping around the house, though, looking down at her ring, and I grimace.

I hate that ring. It doesn’t fit her at all. She likes sapphires and rubies, not diamonds. I know her better now. And this time I actually care if she likes the ring.

I wake up early one day and grab Lara. We drive to Paige’s, who has gone back to her place this past week, and get her to come with us. She is grumpy because she doesn’t like to be up early, but Lara is excited.

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