Page 43 of His Team

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Now I’m not going to be with my family for Christmas and my brother is trapped with my crazy-ass mama with no me to back her down.”

“We can try in the morning. I really am sorry.”

I stand and head for the door. I’m done talking to her. I swear, she’s turning into my mama and it’s getting on my last nerve.

“Where are you going?”

“To take a shower. Don’t be here when I get out. I’ll pick you up in the morning if they open the roads.”

“You’d rather be here alone? I said I’m sorry.”

“I might change my mind later, but right now, I need you to go.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, Cam.”

CHAPTER 16

Need a Friend

Maribel

“Why aren’t you on your flight?” Dez growls into the phone.

“I missed it.I had to stay to work on an assignment my professor gave me an extension on,” I say.

That’s total bullshit. I don’t want to go home to be around my father or Dez. I’d rather be anywhere but there. I missed that flight intentionally, but he doesn’t need to know that.

I would rather spend my Christmas and New Year alone than go back home to be around Dez or my dad. My father isn’t listening to me when I tell him I’m over this and it’s not what I want. It’s like I’m screaming into an empty room with no one to hear me.

“I will book you for a flight in the morning.”

“And I won’t be on that either. I will be here until the first of the year. I can’t leave before then. I promised my mom I’d drop in for a few quick days after the new year.”

He sighs heavily on the other end. I roll my eyes. You would think he would get the point by now.

“Maribel, I’m not asking you to come home. I’m telling you. If you’re not here by the opening of the year, I will come there, and you won’t be finishing the semester.

“You will be barefoot and pregnant within the year. That’s a promise. Do you understand me?”

“What the heck is the rush?”

“Not that I need to explain myself, but there are moves being made in my world. I need to establish myself and my role before those things come to fruition. In order to take my brother’s place, I need a wife.

“You are that wife, Maribel. You were promised to me. I don’t take promises lightly,” he says.

My stomach twists. I still don’t get how I fit into all of this. I have no idea why my father decided to promise me off to this man. Heck, he wasn’t even a man when this promise was made.

“I need to get back to my assignment. I’ll talk to you later,” I mumble.

“Merry Christmas, Maribel. I will have your gift when you arrive.”

I shiver in disgust, not liking the way his words come out. I don’t want anything from him but my freedom. I hang up before he can say anything else.

I toss my phone down and bury my face in my knees as I sit on the couch with my legs pulled into my body. I’m still in my PJs. This apartment feels so empty without Taylor here.

She left for Christmas break a few days ago. I waited until the last minute to book a flight I knew I wasn’t going to take. I want to scream and tear my hair out.

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