Page 12 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“Fuck, Boone! You act like she’s some innocent angel in all this. She got exactly what she was asking for – hitched her ride to me whether I wanted it or not.”

“You know that’s not fuckin’ true!” I yelled at him.

“Isn’t it?” Merc asked, his eyes desperately searching between all of us for the answer he knew was there. He was wrong though.

“I had a crush on you, it’s not a big secret. Trust me when I say, you very effectively killed that for me, and I fought tooth and nail against having to do this. You aren’t the only one being punished.”

“No, I’m just the only one without the ability to get out if I want to.”

I laughed at the dumbass. “Seriously? That’s what you think?” I glared at all the men then. “I’m expected to uphold my vows to you for five, long years before I can get out. During that time, I can’t step out on you. I can’t date other people. I can’t fall in love. I can’t even entertain the possibility of ever having sex again. You’re not being held to those standards. You get to do whatever you goddamn well please, because you belong to the club and get to take part in all the perks they provide.”

Merc’s eyes darted between his father and mine, lips parted in shock, wondering who let the cat out of the bag.

“They didn’t have to tell me. See, something you never knew about me – I’m not fucking stupid.”

“Okay, I think that’s enough.”

I glared at my father. “You guys get to move right into the house. Everyone who wasn’t present for the wedding today was over there working on getting the house set up for the three of you.”

“Great!” I groaned before Boone and my dad insisted that we follow them over.

I was shocked to see that the place had been totally cleared out and all new furniture had been put in its place. The furniture looked like things I would have picked out. In fact, it looked exactly like the pieces of furniture I put in my wish list for one day when I could afford to move out of my dad’s house.

I turned to look at my dad then. “How?”

“You think I didn’t know about your hopes and dreams?” He asked as if it wouldn’t chip away at the ice block currently surrounding my heart. “Boone parted with the house, I pitched in on all the new furniture to give you guys a true fresh start. Same goes for the furniture as with the house, if the time comes that you want to split up. It gets split equally.”

They walked us down the hall, and a quick glance at the kitchen told me that everything in there was all new too, along with a familiar set of dual-toned blue dishes that I had picked out. We continued to move toward the door where my life as I knew it effectively ended with a blurted pregnancy announcement. What was once Merc’s bedroom, essentially the master of the house, had been transformed into a gorgeous master suite again instead of the filthy bachelor pad room of a teenage boy. The bed was a four poster, wooden monstrosity that had to be king sized. It had a white, down comforter on it and white sheets and pillowcases. The curtains were also white, though there were dark wooden shades on the windows to block out the light if need be.

There was a white overstuffed chair in the far corner, and beside that was a new bookshelf that matched the bed perfectly. A dresser sat on the left and the right side of the bed, up against the walls with plenty of space to maneuver in between. I assumed that one would belong to me and the other was supposed to be for my husband, which meant they truly intended for us to live as husband and wife. It would be laughable if I didn’t hold so much appreciation for how beautiful the room was. The sad part was that it was designed with a couple in mind and would always serve as a reminder that it was supposed to be just that to whomever occupied the room.

I didn’t bother to step into the bathroom that was attached. While I had never seen it before, I also didn’t want to. What if Merc’s things were still sitting everywhere? What if evidence of him and another woman lingered? Ugh! There was no way they would have left something like that behind for me to find, but it didn’t stop the worry from edging past my damn sanity.

“It’s been cleaned thoroughly,” Boone told me as we turned to leave while Merc ducked in to see what had changed. I simply shrugged my shoulders and flounced out of the room to the sound of my new father-in-law chuckling behind my back.

“She’s going to give him hell,” he muttered to my father.

“Prick deserves it,” my dad answered back.

Neither of them had been quiet so I just continued to the only other room that was downstairs, and the minute I stepped inside I let out an audible gasp at what I was seeing. Then, the tears began to build and fall as I took everything in while blocking the doorway.

The walls of the second bedroom were painted a soft yellow, but down toward the bottom, from the baseboards to about knee height, there was a border that looked to be painted on. It was all grass and trees with forest animals hanging around here and there. There was a little gray bunny that looked as though it will feel just as soft as the real thing if you pet it.

Looking up, I saw that a similar sized border trailed along the top of the room from the ceiling down about two feet. There was a moon and stars on one side of the room and the sun and puffy white clouds on the other side. In between, on the third wall with the window, the transition was that of a sunset. The wall with the doorway that I was blocking had a similar feature. The whole day was represented along the walls as well as the nature scene below with the adorable baby animals.

On the wall with the moon and stars sat a white crib. It was empty of any bedding, and I had to imagine that was done on purpose. It wasn’t like I had time to imagine what the baby’s nursery would look like yet, so I hadn’t picked anything out. On the other wall stood an all-white dressing table, a dresser, and in the corner sat a white gliding rocker with pale yellow cushions that matched the walls.

“What’s going on?” Merc asked as my dad slowly pulled me back out of the room. Merc stood there, not daring to step any closer to the door, as he watched tears trail down my cheeks.

“We wanted you to add the final touches yourself,” Boone offered quietly. My only response was to nod as Merc pushed past me and went to see what the big deal was for himself. I didn’t stick around to see his reaction though. Instead, I remembered the loft area that was once Boone’s bedroom and I secretly hoped that it was still set up that way, so that Merc could take that space for himself. It would leave me with the master all to myself, but I figured he wouldn’t want to be that close to the baby when it came anyway.

No such luck though. It seemed our fathers were determined to make us live together as true spouses. Instead of another bedroom up there, it had been turned into what appeared to be a library or office. I nodded my head, knowing this was also my father’s doing.

“Merc has the clubhouse to get away to and work out of. You need a space for yourself for whatever you end up doing.”

“It’s beautiful.” I admitted and then turned to the two men who had put all of this together for us. I knew it was more so for me because none of us were under any illusions about what was going to happen. Merc would most likely spend all his time at the clubhouse and this place would be my own personal gilded cage.

“Thank you for making my prison look pretty,” I told them as I managed to get back down the stairs before Merc started climbing them. I knew he heard me, because his brows pulled together in question. He really thought that I married him thinking we would happily wed. I shouldn’t have been shocked since I had always been the watcher while being ignored by him. The man didn’t know the first damn thing about me.

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