Page 1 of By His Vow

1

TATUM

Isit and stare at the wall ahead as the oppressive grief and sadness in the room press heavily on my shoulders.

Mom sniffles quietly next to me. But I don’t look over. I can’t.

It’s all she’s done since we got the news five days ago. She’s been inconsolable.

She’s had everyone doing everything for her, pandering to her grieving needs, but it’s like no time has passed. She’s refusing to accept the truth, and in turn, refusing to get involved with any of the arrangements.

It’s fallen to me and Miles, my older brother, who’s sitting on my other side, and Michael who’s beside him, our father’s oldest and closest friend.

Our family lawyer sits uncomfortably at my late father’s desk—no doubt the reason for Mom’s most recent breakdown—riffling through his briefcase to find the paperwork he needs.

To anyone else, he would appear unprepared and unprofessional. But to us, he’s just Richard. A man who has been a part of our lives forever. He’s reliable, trustworthy, and…a bit of a character. But he’s the best. Dad refused to work with anyone else.

He continues wasting time before glancing at his watch.

What the hell is he waiting for?

He asked for us to be here for 2 p.m., and it’s now almost 2:15.

I don’t know about them, but I’m ready to face the inevitable and get on with my life.

Should I be more cut up about my father’s unexpected death? Probably.

But I didn’t have the same kind of relationship with him that Miles or our mother did.

I am neither the woman he shared his life with nor his firstborn son. I’m not even his second-born son.

I’m his daughter.

Something he’d always been bitter about.

He may never have said the words, but they weren’t necessary with the way he looked at me. The way he spoke to me.

The only thing my birth brought to the table was the ability to bear children, but even then, they wouldn’t carry the Warner name. And something tells me that whomever I choose to spend my life with and have my children with would never have stood up to his impossibly high standards.

He expected me to be with someone of a similar wealth and social class.

Which meant he wanted to see me marry some egotistical asshole. Basically, a clone of the man he’d trained my older brother to be. I shudder at the thought.

I don’t want this life.

Sure, on the outside, everything looks great.

We’ve got the houses, the vacations, the cars, the designer clothes.

But it’s all bullshit. A shiny veneer covering up the reality.

Like my father lying through his back teeth about his health and leaving us in the lurch with this mess.

He could have warned us. Mom could have had time to come to terms with her impending life as a widow. Miles could have stepped up at work and have been ready for his sudden promotion.

But no.

The all-powerful Jonathan Warner decided that the best thing for us would be the shock of finding out he had a failing heart when it was too late.

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