Page 7 of Forgotten Promise

Oh my God. In thirty days, she would have to come back here and get married to Benjamin Dara.

Unfortunately, Benjamin and John seemed to have the same “rush out” plan she did because as she stepped into the corridor, they walked out of their own dressing rooms.

Kailani froze, then stormed past Benjamin.

He reached out, caught her arm. “Kailani.”

She yanked her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”

John rushed over to them, his gaze assessing. “You two…know each other.”

“You could say that.” Benjamin was looking at her in a way that made Kailani’s blood heat. No, it made her blood boil because she hated him.

“Ah.” John looked between them. “I’m guessing you don’t get along?”

“The Daras are amoral assholes,” Kailani said.

Benjamin scoffed. “Don’t be naive. Your family’s money isn’t exactly lily-white.”

“Wait, your families? This has to do with family history?” John asked.

“Yes,” Benjamin said.

“No,” Kailani countered. “Benjamin is an ass all on his own without taking into account his family’s willingness to destroy things to ensure fourth-quarter profit.”

“Who are your families?” John asked slowly.

“The Daras own Ironclad Airlines, Endaragon Energy, and a couple of weapons manufacturers that make them part of the military industrial complex,” Kailani explained.

“And the Iona family is in politics and hotels. They own large chunks of Hawaii and want to maintain the status quo there to ensure they don’t have too much competition,” Benjamin interjected.

“That’s bullshit,” Kailani snarled.

“It’s true, and your tree-hugging is laughable, given that you need tourists for your business to survive.”

“Your families own airlines and hotels. Right.” John blinked.

Kailani turned to him. “John, I’m so sorry. I’m making a terrible first impression.” She slid her arm through his. “Maybe we can go to dinner to get to know one another. I promise I’m a very reasonable individual, normally.”

“We’ll all go,” Benjamin said.

“Absolutely not,” she shot back.

“Why? Are you still mad about that time we hooked up?”

The way he said it, almost with pity, made Kailani feel small and stupid all over again.

“Wait, you dated?” John asked.

“Of course not,” Benjamin said. “We’re legacies—our parents are members of the Trinity Masters. We grew up knowing we’d have arranged marriages, so we didn’t date. What would be the point? But we were friends when we were younger, and once the hormones kicked in, there was a lot of hooking up.”

Kailani felt sick because Benjamin was right. It wasn’t his fault that she’d fallen in love with him when she was nineteen. She’d been naive, painfully so, but thought she was worldly. She’d seen herself and Benjamin as “Romeo and Juliet”—their families’ businesses and interests were at war, but she and Benjamin would fall in love, and that would fix everything. She’d imagined that their love would be so pure and powerful that the Grand Master would see that and place them in a trinity together to codify the relationship.

Actually, at nineteen, wildly in love with a boy who’d swept her off her feet, she’d taken the fantasy a step further, dreaming that she and Benjamin had the only duo marriage in the society. At the time, she couldn’t imagine sharing him with anyone, even a third in their marriage.

She’d apparently forgotten how “Romeo and Juliet” ended because she’d been shocked when everything had fallen apart.

They’d spent a magical summer traveling and having sex and doing every romantic thing two young people with money and time could think to do. And in the fall, when they were both due back at college, Benjamin had casually kissed her, said “that was fun,” and a week later, she saw a picture of him with another girl.

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