Page 127 of The Proposal Pact
“I-I have no idea what you’re—”
“Save your words for someone else. You could never fool someone who faced the bottom of the ocean the same way you did.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “How did you—”
“Save it,” she stops me. “Save that story for her.” Kira nods toward approaching Sophie.
Vassar sits there, quietly fuming, but regards me with a new look. One so similar to his wife’s, it’s unnerving, but not with as deep an understanding, and I wonder who did Kira lose to the ocean?
“Why do you all look so serious?” Sophie asks, worrying that pout lip again as she takes her seat at the table.
Vassar’s gaze lingers on me a beat longer before he turns to his sister. “Are you happy?” he asks her, and Sophie blinks, taken aback by the sudden change in the mood.
“Y-yes.” She clears her throat, stealing a quick glance at me. “I am. Clover makes me happy.”
Just like that…that’s all it takes for my heart to settle down. Just Sophie, next to me. Just Sophie, saying I make her happy.
She gave me so much more than I deserved, the guilt starts scratching at my soul with maddening force.
“I can’t believe you got married without me,” Vassar tells her, and when I detect a note of sadness, the guilt breaks through.
“It’s not real.” The words tumble out of me in a hushed rumble.
The world inside our apartment stops for a second.
“What did you just say?” Vassar asks slowly as I hear Sophie gasp.
“It’s not real,” I repeat, this time louder. “The marriage. It’s fake. I got Sophie into this scheme. So, don’t be furious with her. She was only helping me, but it’s not real. So, she didn’t get married without you.”
The words hurt more than they should.
“Fake,” Vassar deadpans, as if he has no other words. But that’s more than Sophie, who’s staring at me with those wide brown eyes, her mouth opening and closing a million times with no sound coming out.
“Yes, fake,” I tell Vassar and then turn to Kira. “And you were wrong,” I add the other part with my eyes, not words.
To my surprise, the dead silence gets pierced by Kira’s laugh.
Loud and untamed. “Oh my God!” She laughs even harder, smacking the table and then her husband’s arm, almost sending him to the ground from his chair. “V-Vassar, your sister has you beat! You only m-managed to be f-fake dating and she got f-fake married!” Kira’s laughing so hard she’s wheezing out the words.
But same can’t be said about her husband, who’s slowly returning to life after the bomb I dropped.
“Explain,” he tells Sophie, his identical to her brown eyes drilling into her.
Sophie sends me a death glare and then bites her bottom lip, plastering a forced smile on her face. “Like brother, like sister?” she says with fake cheer that doesn’t amuse her brother at all.
Kira only laughs harder, clutching her stomach. “God, this is pure gold!”
“What the hell, Sophia? Was he threatening you?” He starts to get up from the table to—no doubt—punch me, but Sophie catcheshis arm.
“No, no! It wasn’t like that!”
“Then how?”
She swallows hard. “He needed my help, and at the time I thought this would be a good idea to show you I was stable and all that.”
He turns to look at her. “Solid plan,” Vas deadpans, and Sophie winces.
“Funny, that’s exactly what Grace said.”
