Page 41 of When Hearts Surrender

I had been working up my courage to tell my friends about my arranged marriage when everything came to a head at Millie’s college graduation dinner, when Maxwell was forced to be in the same room as me and Linus blurted out our arrangement in front of everyone.

Needless to say, the girls have not been happy with me.

“I wanted to. I really did. I was going to,” I mumble, my responses sounding pathetic even to my ears.

“You know, I don’t care you didn’t tell us.” Taylor squats down and pets Silas’s fur. Silas rolls over belly up and wiggles on the patch of grass on the sidewalk. “I just want to know if he’s coercing you into this shit. Do I need to beat him up or something, because half-bro or not, I will.”

Millie snorts. This is on brand for our hold-no-prisoners, badass ballerina, even though I find it hard to imagine her tall, elegant frame beating up someone as strong and solid as Silas.

Maxwell, dammit. Maxwell.

“He didn’t coerce me.” I sigh, looking around the street, mostly devoid of people on this late afternoon. “I’m going to tell you girls something, but you can’t repeat it to anyone else.”

The girls huddle closer and I briefly recap the conversation with my parents, my unfortunate health news in the fertility department, and my deal with Maxwell.

I keep the magical hours of my time with Silas to myself.

It feels sacred—a secret I want to hold inside my heart.

Grace’s eyes widen into the size of dinner plates. “You what! But why would Maxwell want something like this? He doesn’t need an arranged marriage. The man is a billionaire!”

It’s something I still haven’t figured out yet, and it certainly doesn’t help that the man in question doesn’t want to talk to me. He can have any woman he wants. Why would he subject himself to something as archaic as an arranged marriage?

“He said it was because Fleur wanted a stake in the premiere fashion couture house in America. That’s an industry they don’t have their hands in.”

It doesn’t sit right with me. There are plenty of ways to achieve that without this arrangement.

Millie purses her lips, no doubt thinking the same thing. Suddenly, she gasps and tugs both Taylor’s and Grace’s arms, pulling them closer.

She murmurs, “Do you think it’s because of you know what?”

“What you know what?” I ask, but they shush me.

Grace and Taylor’s mouths drop open and Taylor shoves Millie on the side. How this woman is one of the top ballerinas in the country has me questioning my eyesight sometimes.

“I bet it is. The entire family believes it to be real,” Grace whispers.

“What’s real?”

The three of them ignore me, apparently clued in on something I’m not privy to.

“Will someone tell me what’s going on? I’m marrying the man. I deserve to know!”

The girls look at each other, passing silent messages. Millie nods and Grace turns to Taylor.

Taylor shrugs. “She deserves to know. She’s joining the family soon.”

Millie turns back to me and says, “I found this out recently from Ryland. Apparently, their family is cursed. Something about the women the eldest sons love and marry will die an untimely death.”

The cold sweat beading on my back has nothing to do with the summer heat.

“A curse?” I shake my head, my pulse quickening. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope. I wish Millie was making shit up, but they told us a few months after we learned that our biological dad is Linus.” Taylor picks the black nail polish off her nails. “That’s why there aren’t any women in the Anderson family, except Lana and, of course, Grace and me.”

She looks up, her brow arched almost to her hairline. “Grace doesn’t believe it, but I think there are many things in the world we don’t understand. Life, death, where we come from and where we go when we leave this earth. I’m on the fence, but not ruling it out as the truth.”

“And because of the curse, it’s rumored a lot of the Andersons end up in arranged marriages…to avoid falling in love but to get heirs. Something about heirs being required in the curse,” Millie supplies.

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