Page 21 of Vengeful Vows

“He says that he and our mother used to sleep together in it when they lived with her parents back in Dublin,” Lara explains. “He won’t have a single thing about it changed.”

I find myself feeling a little bad for Patrick. I know that his wife died in an accident, but he clearly isn’t over it. How does someone get over a thing like that, though?

It doesn’t matter. He’s still the one trying to kill my father, destroy my family. Just because he misses his wife doesn’t mean he’s the good guy in this story. I mean, he had me kidnapped and married me to his son.

Lara leads me out to the terrace, and there’s a beautiful garden all around it. Roses, lavender, honeysuckle, all the scents mix in the air and float by me on the breeze.

Looking all around me, I can’t help the sense of peace that falls over me. “It’s beautiful.”

“All Ma,” Lara explains with a wide smile. “But we keep it up. I do most of the gardening myself. Just don’t trust anyone else to keep Ma’s flowers alive.”

Again, a pang of sympathy hist me, and I push it away.

The Burkes are the bad guys. They’re evil and crazy, and I shouldn’t like them.

We go past a small office, but neither of the girls makes much mention of it, so I assume it’s one of Patrick’s. Upstairs, they lead me past the area where Declan and I stayed and into the left wing.

“You’ll have to pick out a suite.” Paige grins. She is almost skipping as she goes.

“What, why?”

Lara nods. “Yeah, Declan’s room is too small, and all the other rooms are technically guest rooms, so they’re not all suites. You’ll want a bigger space as a couple.”

I want to argue, but I don’t think it would do me any good. The Stepford sisters don’t seem to have any clue what’s going on. They act as if I chose this, as if I’m really their sister-in-law instead of a prisoner. As if Declan and I are a happily married couple and all of this is just normal.

I slowly trail into each of the suites. They are like little apartments.

The one I choose has a small kitchenette, a sitting room, the bedroom, a huge bathroom with a big clawfoot tub, and a huge walk-in closet like the one in Paige’s room.

“It’s perfect,” Paige says.

It’s beautiful.

But I don’t say it. If I’d actually gotten to choose my husband, actually chosen for love instead of being forced, I’d probably be the happiest ever thinking I found my perfect home.

“And of course, we’ll send the stylist right up,” Lara says. “We’ll let you get settled.”

“What do you mean, the stylist?” My eyes widen.

“What do you think I mean? You’ll need a whole new wardrobe,” Paige says. “You can’t keep wearing my hand-me-downs.” She looks me up and down. “Besides, you’ll have to get your measurements done, you have a lot more junk in the trunk than I do.” She giggles, and I can’t help but smile.

“Yeah, we’re a little jealous,” Lara admits. “We wish we could get a new wardrobe without Da freaking out about how much we spend.”

“Thirty thousand a month isn’t that bad, I keep telling him,” Paige says.

Thirty thousand dollars? A month?

My breath catches in my throat, and I almost choke on air. I know that I probably spend a good deal, but thirty thousand? The Burkes are crazy but also loaded, it turns out.

“Melissa will be right up,” Lara says, and she and Paige leave me in the suite to get settled.

I’m not sure what to do, especially since I don’t have any of my things and am not likely to be able to get them, so I just sit on the bed, bouncing slightly.

The thread count on these sheets must be insane. Everything in this house is insane, including the people. But Lara and Paige are at least good crazy, and they make me feel a little less alone.

Instead of knocking on the door, a woman I assume is Melissa bursts right in, wheeling a huge clothes rack behind her. I have no idea how she got it up the stairs.

“Girly!” she says, with a heavy Slavic accent. “It’s time to get you all dressed up.”

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