Page 84 of Devious Secrets

“Thanks. I’ll be back in twenty.” I pick up the massive amount of fabric of the skirt and make my way to the doors. Elana is at my side as soon as I’m in the hall.

“I’ll help you.” She smiles and takes some of the burden of the fabric as we head through the house back up to Alexander’s bedroom.

Well, our bedroom now, I suppose.

“I can’t believe you actually wore this thing.” Elana laughs as she grapples with the antique zipper.

“If you had told me there was going to be all those other people, I wouldn’t have.” I step out of the dress once it’s pooled at my feet and head over to the rack of dresses he had brought over from Vera Wang.

VERA WANG!

I’ve never been a fashionista, but even I understand the luxury of wearing a Vera Wang wedding dress.

“I didn’t know, to be honest. I knew he asked Mrs. Wells to make a special dinner, but he didn’t mention all those people. It was only when he brought us to the larger dining room that I realized what was happening.” Elana kicks the black dress into the corner of the room.

“He’s just so… so… demanding.” I grit my teeth a little with the memory of his dictates about getting married. “I mean, he didn’t ask me to marry him, Elana. He demanded it. He said I had to. I wasn’t lying about the threat to shoot me.”

She stops sorting through the dresses to give me an exasperated look.

“He wouldn’t shoot you.”

“You don’t know that. He’s shot at me before,” I tell her. “Well, it was a shot in the air because I was running away from him, but still.”

She laughs. “That sounds like him. When I was about eight, our dad sent Alexander’s mom to Russia for the summer. He made me come stay with him for a month. Now my father never gave me the time of day, so I have no idea why he did that, especially since he didn’t even spend any time with me that month. He pawned me off on the boys.”

“That had to be hard, having a father like that.” Would Alexander be that way to our children? I shake the thought from my head. This isn’t going to last long enough for children. Once the danger passes, he has to come to his senses.

She lifts a shoulder. “I got used to it pretty quick. He at least didn’t ignore me financially. But anyway, I was so mad that I had to be here instead of home with my friends, I ran away. Or at least I tried. Alexander found me two blocks away. He didn’t say anything. The big brute just walked right up to me, picked me up, and carried me home.”

I laugh at the image of a twenty-four-year-old Alexander carrying his little sister down the street.

“Did he yell at you?”

“No.” She laughs. “He just brought me to my room and told me to stay put.”

“Well. You’re his sister, of course he was protective and overbearing to you.” I pick out an ivory strapless drop-waist A-line gown with a black horsehair sash. It’s one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen with feathered tulle flower embroidery not only on the skirt but on the bodice buttons on the back.

Elana takes the dress from my hands and lays it on the bed to start unbuttoning the back bodice.

“He’s like that with those he cares about, Megan. That’s what I’m telling you.” She slides the hanger from the dress and tosses it on the bed. “I know he forced you down there today, and it’s not what you wanted, but he only goes to these extremes for people he really cares about. If he didn’t give a shit about you, he wouldn’t have just married you.”

“Well, it’s temporary.”

She freezes and turns a raised eyebrow at me. “If you really believe that, you’re lying to yourself. Alexander took vows down there, and he takes his vows seriously.”

Before I can argue that this is all really unnecessary, my phone vibrates on the nightstand. Hoping it’s Mira finally checking in, I grab it and swipe the screen to life.

Time’s up. Where’s the drive?

Inside the walk-in closet, Megan stands in front of the full-length mirror when I join her in our bedroom. The guests have finally left, my siblings the last of them.

Leaning my shoulder against the doorframe, I take her in.

She’s changed out of the Vera Wang dress into a black satin nightgown. Lace trims the neckline and the hem that barely kisses the edge of her ass.

When she turns to the side, inspecting herself, she catches me in the reflection and her cheeks redden.

“I was just trying it on.” She flattens her hands over her stomach. “It’s too nice, I can’t keep it.”

---