Page 56 of Forbidden Dark Vows

“You-you’re getting married.”

What do I say? I would be getting married if my future father-in-law didn’t destroy you thirteen years ago, and my mom hadn’t already made it perfectly clear that she isn’t happy about it?

“She doesn’t have to go through with it.” I bristle at my mom’s words, my spine stiffening. “They’ll realize what a huge mistake it would be now that they’ve come back to reality.”

Dad’s eyes twitch. “Let Ruby speak.”

My shoulders slump. When I think about being alone with Harry on our trip, my entire body comes alive, tingling with desire, like a hunger that has to be satiated now that I’ve tasted it. But more than that, far more than the physical attraction, I yearn to be with him. I miss him. Without him, I feel incomplete.

Hot stinging tears fill my eyes. I can’t even blink them away because my dad has already spotted them. Is this love or am I still caught up in the whirlwind trip like a sixteen-year-oldexperiencing a vacation romance and convincing herself that it’s real?

“Ruby?” Dad prompts. “Do you … love him?”

“How can she possibly be in love when she barely knows him?” Mom gets up and stands on the other side of the bed. “It’s a recipe for disaster. Long distance relationships never work and?—”

“Celia.” Dad trembles, but it’s enough to cut her off, her voice skittering through the cracks in the room like a frightened mouse. “This is Ruby’s life. She must … make up her own mind.”

I hadn’t thought about our relationship being long distance. Until Mom said the words out loud, I’d assumed that Harry and I would live in New York when we were married because of his business and because … well … I don’t exactly have a career to cling onto. But now, I realize that I can’t go to New York, not while my dad is sick. I’d never forgive myself if he needed me, and I wasn’t there.

“It’s okay, Dad. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You-you’re not staying here because of me.” Dad’s face crumples, his mouth contorting as if he’s about to cry.

“No. It’s not that.” I chew my bottom lip. I can’t lie to him, but I’m not going to tell him who Harry is, not like this.

“What then? I… Did I do … something wrong?”

Tears spill down my cheeks and I wipe them with my fingertips. The ache in my chest feels like it is here to stay. I can keep Harry’s secret if it means my dad will be okay.

But my mom has no such qualms. “His name is Harry Weiss. He is Karl Weiss’s son, Graham. That’s why she can’t marry him.”

Dad’s eyes drift shut, and he is perfectly motionless for so long that my heart races, afraid that he is slipping away. Then, he opens his eyes and looks at me through fat tears. “Marry him, Ruby. Marry this Harry … and be happy.”

20

HARRY

I sitat my desk for hours after Ruby and Celia have left, staring at the window without seeing anything. Celia is simply trying to cause trouble, for whatever reasons she has for keeping us apart. That’s what I tell myself, but now that the seed has been sown, I can’t help replaying every moment since I met Ruby over and over in my head.

The ice rink. When I catapulted myself over the top of her, she wasn’t skating, but she was watching Alessandro on the ice surrounded by his adoring fans. She left with him too, accepting his impromptu invitation to his birthday party, while I was changing her tire.

It means nothing though. It doesn’t make her a gold digger.

When Alessandro came to me and said that he wanted to impress her, I helped him set up the library, and even chose the rare first editionWuthering Heights. If it was money Ruby was after, she’d have sunk her claws into Hollywood’s rising star and never let go. Wouldn’t she?

Ruby didn’t even know that I’d already made my first million a couple of years ago. She came to the hospital because she was worried about me and stayed until her mom came and dragged her away.

During our trip, she never asked me for anything.Ibooked the first-class tickets;Ichose the George Hotel in Edinburgh;Ichose the diamond ring. An image of Ruby’s face when she was naming the cows on Alastair’s farm pops into my head—if I’d suggested that we stay in Scotland, buy a cottage by the sea and live the rural life, she would’ve been happy. She wants to get married in a forest for fuck’s sake.

So, why am I allowing Celia’s comment to get under my skin?

The woman is clearly manipulative and controlling.

But then I recall Ruby’s comment about the news report that brought her to the hospital when I was injured: “Two eligible bachelors involved in a car wreck.”

She knew who I was before she came, arriving just as the blizzard got hold of Chicago. Had she planned it that way, hoping the staff would suggest that she stay? Was Ronnie’s arrival a spanner in the works, throwing her plan askew? Was it part of Ruby’s game to play it coy, pretend my first proposal was the medication talking, keep me dangling until I couldn’t wait any longer?

Oh God… Was Celia in on the whole thing?

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