Page 103 of Poison Vows

“Yes, sir. I believe there’s no better time like the present to settle matters,” Senator Hughes chimes in seriously.

From the corner of my eye, I see Vaughn glance at me, so I look at him, intentionally keeping a neutral expression on my face.

This makes him smile a bit, but inside, I’m panicking.

“Hmm, you’re right,” Grandpa Armando says after a long while, then his cold gaze cuts to me. “Have you decided?”

“Uh, do I have to say it now?” I croak.

“Is there a problem?”

“Uh…”

“Little girl,” Grandpa Armando starts. “The future of this family rests entirely in your hands.”

“That’s a lot of pressure,” I mumble.

The old man suddenly chuckles. “Then you are indeed smart. You understand the gravity of your importance.”

I doubt it’s me who’s important. I’m just the chip being used to play a sick, twisted game.

“Tell me, between my two outstanding, handsome grandsons, which of them have you chosen?”

As soon as the question falls, all eyes fall on me.

Anxious eyes, excited eyes,calculating eyes…

And suddenly I realize that Emmett knew this would happen.

There’s no other possible explanation.

I look straight into the old man’s eyes, with my heart practically in my throat.

Maybe I should feign a psychotic break? Scream and run out of here to save myself?

As if in a daze, I watch as the refined gentleman, who has been standing behind Vaughn’s grandfather, lean down and whisper something in the old man’s ear.

“Is it?” the old man asks, looking amused once again.

“Yes, sir.”

Vaughn’s grandfather suddenly looks at me with a chilling gaze that makes everything in me stand up on end.

“Ivy Marie, tell me this,” he says in a more serious tone than before. Even the look in his eyes is more intense than before, as if whatever information that was relayed to him just now flipped a switch. “Where did you grow up?”

“Uh… in Westbrook Blues, sir,” I mutter barely above a whisper.

The old man stares at me for what feels like eternity.

Then without another word, he raises his hand.

The man behind him grabs the handles of the wheelchair, turns the old man around, and they head out the room without a word of explanation.

As soon as they leave, it’s as if the entire room lets out a deep exhale, but not entirely because just as Vaughn turns to talk to me and Giovanni’s angry eyes track me, the man who just pushed Vaughn’s grandfather out comes right back in the room and everyone falls silent.

The man heads straight for me and without acknowledging anyone else or even looking at anyone, he bows his head to me, stunning everyone else, including Vaughn.

“Excuse me, Young Miss,” the gentleman says softly and respectfully, his voice thick with a European accent I can’t quite trace. “Please, come with me.”

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