Page 113 of Poison Vows

Everything in me is screaming for me to run. This man is bad news, but I know better.

I quickly force myself to calm down and walk over to him, trying not to look like a scared mouse as I do so.

When I get closer, he’s still flipping through a thick hardcover book, not even looking at me.

“Sit.”

“Uh, yes,” I mutter like an idiot, but you can’t blame me. I’m about to have a coronary!Breathe, Ivy!“Thank you.”

“For what?” he fires back.

Jesus, does he want to give me a panic attack?

“For your hospitality?” I say it like a question. I’m sure he already thinks I’m a blithering idiot.

At this, Emmett’s grandfather looks up at me and studies me. “Interesting. No one has ever thanked me for my hospitality before. This is a first.”

My palms are damp, but I’m fighting to not rub them down my dress.

“Well, I’m kind of nervous, sir.”

“Grandpa Armando,” he corrects in his thick Italian accent. “Am I that scary?”

“Do you want an honest answer?”

“What do you think of honesty?”

What sort of question is that? Is he testing me and my mental fortitude?

Looking around, I scramble to find something to say, so I blurt out something I read years ago that stuck with me.

“I think rigid honesty is a root virtue.”

As I stare, scared to my tits with fright, the head of the Easton Family smiles, just barely, but a smile nonetheless.

“That’s not the full saying,” he says, watching me, calling me out on my nonsense with ease.

I freeze. I thought my response was simple but turns out he’s familiar with Theodore Roosevelt’s words. This old man is by no means easy.

“I… I kind of forgot the ending.” Actually, I didn’t but I didn’t think he’d know…

“And yet the ending is what I remember best.”

Fear like no other strikes me in the pit of my stomach.

Breathe! Don’t let him see.

“Would you mind reminding me?” I ask as softly as I can, trying to stay afloat.

Emmett’s grandfather watches me silently, then he turns to look at the fire.

“‘Honesty, rigid honesty, is a root virtue; if not present, no other virtue can atone for its lack.’”

He quotes the saying with a gentle but firm tone that hints at his sharpness.

“Ahh, yes, I remember now!” I say dramatically with a faux smile, trying to ease the tension in the room.

“It’s not that you forgot,” he calls me out smoothly. “Although if you really did, I already know it’s because youwantto forget.”

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