Page 16 of The Devious Husband

Lex chuckles and throws me an amused look. “He has my approval too. There are very few men that wouldn’t be intimidated by Sierra, but he’s one of them. She’ll be able to just be herself with him, without having to fear she’ll overshadow him. Sierra needs that — someone who appreciates her strong personality.”

“Very well,” Anne says. “In that case, you have my approval too, Xavier.”

My shoulders sag in relief, and she smiles at me reassuringly in a way that’s so reminiscent of Sierra that I stare at her a moment too long, suddenly realizing just how much of an impact the woman in front of me must’ve had on my future wife.

“She won’t react well to this,” she says, her smile slipping. “She’ll fight the decision with everything she’s got, and I wouldn’t put it past her to find some kind of loophole. If anyone can do it, it’d be her.” She sighs and tucks a strands of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear. “It’s best if you leave this to me, Xavier. Let me be the bad guy, or she’ll never give you a chance. Under no circumstances are you to let her know that this marriage is your idea — she’d hold it against you. If it comes from me, she’ll accept it.”

I nod hesitantly, unsure what she has in mind but well aware that her expression spells trouble. After all, it’s the exact way Sierra looks right before she does something completely unhinged.

Fifteen

Sierra

My heart is hammering in my chest as I grab one of my grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies. She asked us all to gather for an announcement, and considering the huge mountain of cookies on the kitchen counter, I have a feeling I know exactly what this is about. Raven snatches my cookie out of my hand and stuffs as much as she can into her mouth before I can even take a bite, and I can’t help but smile.

There are at least fifty cookies here, so I know she did that to distract me from the inevitable. “You don’t need to worry about me so much, you know?” The last thing I want is for my best friend to worry about something we can’t control. She always cares so much, and I don’t want this to keep her up at night.

“How could I not be worried?” she asks as she hands me back half of her cookie. I force a smile before taking a bite, wishing I could find the right words to reassure her.

“How do you feel?” Faye asks carefully. I smile at my tiny sweet sister-in-law, unsure how to answer her. She’s probably one of few who truly get it — after all, out of all my sisters-in-law, she’s the only one who knew she’d be in an arranged marriage from a young age. Though our circumstances are vastly different, she understands why I never wanted to date anyone. It wouldn’t have mattered, since my fate was sealed anyway.

“Nervous, I’d bet,” Celeste says, throwing me a reassuring look. “Whoever it is, and whatever happens, just know that life has a way of working itself out. What’s meant to be, will be.”

I smile at her, taking her words to heart. She’d know — she and Zane grew up as rivals, fell in love, only to fall apart tragically before they were forced into an arranged marriage none of us thought would work out. “I really hope so. I just have a bad feeling about it.”

Raya, our newest sister-in-law, joins us and shakes her head. “How bad could it be?” she asks. “Grandma would never let you marry someone that isn’t right for you.”

“How bad could it be?” I repeat. “Lex literally showed up in your classroom as your professor and hid that he knew you were arranged to be married.”

She bites back a laugh and nods. “And even so, it worked out, didn’t it? Celeste is right. What’s meant to be, will be.”

Grandma crosses her arms, and the boys instantly stop mocking Lex about how he said he’d never be whipped, only to become just as bad as all my other brothers the moment he married Raya. It reminds me that that’s what I want. A husband who adores me, and the kind of happiness all my siblings have found. I’ve waited so long for it, and now that it’s my turn, I’m nervous beyond words.

“I’m certain you can all guess why I’ve gathered you here today,” Grandma says, her eyes roaming over all of us with a hint of pride in them.

Raven bumps her shoulder against mine, and I can’t help but blush. Maybe the girls are right, and this is the start of something amazing. For so long, I’d been looking forward to this exact moment. When did that change?

“Sierra, sweetheart,” Grandma says in that sweet tone she reserves for my sisters-in-law and me. “Your engagement has been finalized.”

I take a deep breath and nod, my heart uneasy. “Who is it?” I ask, my voice trembling.

Grandma hesitates, which is entirely uncharacteristic of her. She looks down, and then she faces me head-on, her expression unyielding. “You’ll be marrying Xavier Kingston.”

My expression must convey my utter horror, because my brothers all chuckle at my expense, earning themselves glares from my sisters-in-law.

“Combining his real estate empire with ours would result in us jointly becoming the biggest real estate firm the world has ever seen,” she explains, and though it makes sense, I just can’t quite comprehend it. “It’ll be the biggest merger we’ve ever done as a family.”

I put down the cookie I was holding and shake my head. “Absolutely not,” I declare, pure hatred rushing through me. “I’m not marrying Xavier. Just disown me, Grandma. I’ll move out tomorrow. I can get my bags packed today.”

Not in a million years will I marry that rotten man. The only good thing about him is his looks, and I’ll be damned if I sleep with the devil, let alone marry him.

“You will,” Val says softly, much to my surprise. “You’ll marry him.” The betrayal stings — I’d expected all my sisters-in-law to be on my side.

“Over my dead body,” I snap.

“Well,” Grandma says, sighing. “As it turns out, it may well be over mine.”

Grandma grabs a set of papers from the kitchen counter and slides them toward me, her expression resigned. “I know you’re not ready, sweetheart,” she says. “I’ve waited for as long as I could, because I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my little girl. But Sierra, my time is up.”

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