Page 1 of Reckless Promises

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Odette

This dress is alie.

It shouldn’t matter when this room is filled with them. But the white lace is what bothers me the most. It’s a symbol of what I’m meant to be when I step out on that stage.

Pure. Vulnerable.

“Sold.”

The word might as well be a gavel as I watch another forced smile cross some poor girl’s face. She stares out into the crowd, where a man twice her age is grinning at his prize, and her eyes glaze over.

Emptiness I’m used to seeing from the women who hang on the arms of my father’s business partners. And I can’t help but wonder if she’s battling the same thing I am—desperate to escape her own family, only knowing she’ll now be part of someone else’s.

Their property.

The girl on stage is younger than me—not even legally old enough to drink—but she’ll be that man’s wife now. I’m not much older at twenty-one, and I’m considered old for this particular auction. Most of the men here are looking for someone eighteen. Young. Naïve. Easy to mold.

The only reason I was chosen to be put up on the block instead of my nineteen-year-old sister Genevieve is because, in this specific scenario, I’ll fetch a high price given who is in the crowd.

“Why aren’t you fighting this, Odette?” Genevieve brushes my dark hair off my shoulders and fluffs it. “Dad got himself into this mess. There has to be another way out.”

If only it were that simple.

If only it was just him on the line.

Genevieve is still young, and I’ve done my best to shield her from the harsh realities of our father’s business. She still has hope blooming where the sunlight hasn’t yet been taken away. She doesn’t understand that when they come to collect on our father’s debts, it doesn’t matter if we’re innocent, we’ll be collateral damage anyway.

She didn’t overhear his conversation last week like I did.

His botched drug shipment cost his business partners more than a month’s worth of income. And every day the interest is adding up. He doesn’t have the liquidity to make up for his mistake, so he’ll use me to pay the price.

At least if I go willingly, it will keep Genevieve and Mom out of it.

“I can handle this.” I force a smile, hoping she doesn’t see straight through it.

“But Sascha is—”

“Don’t think about him,” I cut her off, bile rising in my throat as my gaze drifts to the man in the front row.

Sascha Rochefort is seated next to my father, donning his signature smug grin. He’s been drooling over every girl who takes the stage, but he’s saving his bid. Tonight might be an open auction, and he might be interested in anyone and everyone who graces the stage, but he’s waiting patiently.

Me for my father’s debts.

It’s the excuse Sascha’s been waiting years for to satisfy his sick obsession.

Ever since I was fifteen and started filling out my dresses, Sascha Rochefort has had his eyes on me. He’d linger late after parties and find excuses to check in on me and my sister. His reputation for liking young girls is as prolific as the zeros in his bank account. And if it weren’t for my mother begging my father to wait until my sister and I were older before allowing this to happen, I’d have been sold to him sooner.

A cool chill runs down my spine as Sascha watches another young girl cross the stage.

Just because he wants me to fulfill a fantasy he’s held onto for years doesn’t mean he cares about me. I’ll be his trophy—something to show off and use as he sees fit. He’ll force me to stand silently at his side and be the mother of his kids. And all the while, he’ll have affairs behind my back like they all do.

Like my father does.

That’s the best-case scenario. At least if Sascha splits his attention, I won’t be his only outlet. Then maybe I’ll have time to figure out a way to get out of all of this.

All I need is enough freedom from my father to set my plan in motion to free Genevieve and me. I’ll get the cash for us to run away—escape. Hopefully, before Gen becomes like me. Just another Bardot woman being traded by her family, never to be thought of again.

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