Page 4 of Wicked Knight

Damn it. What the hell am I going to do now?

This is an absolute clusterfuck.

Everything is out of my hands.

I’m powerless. I can’t fix this situation with one of my clever ideas.

The contract was supposed to be one of those.

Fuck… what will happen when my father finds out?

Stay away from that Valneko boy.

Pick anybody but him.

Have absolutely nothing to do with him and his atrocious family.

Those are only a few of the warnings my father has thrown my way over the years. I’ve also suspected that he may even go as far as cutting me off if I were to ever defy him.

I understand his hatred for Dmitri’s family, and I can’t blame him. Dmitri’s father put mine through hell and nearly destroyed all of us. But as monstrous as he was, I understand him, too. He lost a son and never got justice. He acted out of pain.

It’s been difficult for me to heed my father’s warnings.

Dmitri was my very first friend in life. We’ve known each other since we were toddlers because our fathers were friends from college—here at Raventhorn.

Our ties with the Knights have always bound us. We went to the same high school, had the same friends, and now we’re attending the same college.

Kade, his best friend, is engaged to my best friend, Isabelle.And… the biggest connection of all is that our families are still next-door neighbors.

He was my proverbialboy next door.

It was and still is near impossible for us to avoid each other.

My father is mad enough at me for wiggling my way out of his previous arrangement, he’s going to blame me for this, too.

I never denied what I did because I wanted him to know I was fighting for my career. But this is different. It’s next-level bad.

I don’t want to even think about the consequences of the repercussions.

I’m still covered under the contract for another nine months, but I doubt it’ll go unnoticed that Kyle and I no longer have an agreement.

I should tell Dad what’s happened. It would be best if he heard it from me because it’s inevitable that the truth will come out. But what do I say?

Dad still has plans to marry me off, and he knows Kyle and I aren’t madly in love.

I also know he’s still looking for ways around the contract so he can find a suitable match for me that will benefit him, too, sooner.

He’s been obsessed with finding me a husband since the year began and acting like a desperate man.

I didn’t want to believe it at first because my father is such an influential man throughout New York and Boston who is renowned for his entrepreneurial success.

But his actions tell me something is going on. Something bad he’s trying to keep secret. I fear he may be in trouble.Money trouble.

Those words sound ridiculous in my mind because Dad is a media mogul. We’ve never had money trouble. My father’s wealth is so vast and endless, none of us should have to worry about money for several lifetimes. But I know something is wrong.

The gentle afternoon breeze wraps around me, lifting my hair and caressing my cheeks with invisible fingers trying to pull me out of my daze.

I look back to where Dmitri stood. All that remains is the wind rustling through the fallen leaves that have gathered on the evergreen grass.

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