Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
No one was going to get hurt.
“So what did your parents say about the marriage?” Sarah asked Allegra as we ate lunch in the kitchen together fifteen minutes later.
Allegra tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear, showing off the row of piercings. I’d noted she had four piercings on her left and three on her right, but she wore tiny studs that you only really noticed when they winked in the light. “Um …” She shot me a quick look before lowering her gaze to her sandwich. “I haven’t told them yet.”
Irritation flared in my gut, but I ignored it.
Sarah, however, put my thoughts into blunt words. “Has this got something to do with the ridiculous story you told Aria? That you were hiding your relationship for a year because you didn’t think your parents would approve of you dating a farmer? Whose idea was that?”
Over the last few years, my cousin had gained confidence. She’d always been fiery beneath that shy exterior, but now she took no shit from no one. Being married to someone as blunt as Theo was definitely rubbing off on her. I was proud to see her come into her own like she had.
But I wanted to defend Allegra against the accusatory glare in Sarah’s eyes. It was me who’d come up with the idea to tell everyone that we kept our relationship a secret because we didn’t think her parents would approve. Unfortunately, that meant it had to look like Allegra agreed with me. I hadn’t really considered that she might actually suspect her parents wouldn’t approve, though.
I suppose it made sense. If I knew I was out of her league, of course her parents would too.
Allegra lifted her gaze to meet Sarah’s and flinched. She shifted in agitation. “Look, I am not ashamed of Jared. Of course I’m not. But Aria has a very different relationship with our parents than I do. I’m not close to them. I don’t …” She looked away, pain etching itself in her features. “I don’t really tell them much about my life at all anymore.”
At the hollowness in her eyes, I had a sudden urge to pull her into my arms. To protect her from whatever was causing that awful expression. I remembered her words from last week. About how she’d nearly died, shot someone, and been to rehab before she was eighteen.
It had taken all my self-control not to ask her every single day since what she’d been talking about. I’d even googled it. But there was nothing online about a traumatic past, so whatever happened to Allegra hadn’t been leaked to the press.
Did it have something to do with her parents?
“I don’t want them to think that by telling them right away, I’m interested in their opinion about our marriage. Because I’m not.”
“Do you think they would contest it?” Sarah asked quietly, seeming to sense the same grief that shrouded Allegra when she talked about Chiara and Wesley Howard.
“Dad? No.” Allegra shrugged, a cynical smirk on her face that didn’t suit her. “He likes to think he’s down with the working people. Mamma … Mamma knows she isn’t and likes it that way. I’m twenty-five. My trust fund is mine, no take-backsies, and I have my own money from my art even if they could, by some miracle, take my inheritance from me. Which they can’t. My financial advisor has assured me of it. There was no stipulation on the trust fund. I can marry who I like. I married Jared.” Her eyes flickered to me before returning to meet Sarah’s. “They can like it or lump it, as Mrs. Hutchinson likes to say.” She referred to the head housekeeper at Ardnoch Estate, Sarah’s old boss.
Sarah’s answering smile was half-hearted. “I still think you should tell your parents. I mean … you want people to believe this marriage is real, right?”
“Sarah—”
“You know.” Allegra suddenly stood. “I have a final piece I need to finish for my art show at the end of the month and, uh, I don’t mean to be rude, but this interrogation is kind of messing with my head. So, um, I’m going to my studio.” She didn’t look at me as she threw in my direction, “I might be home late.”
Surprised by the uncharacteristic coldness and the abrupt way it had come over her, I sat in silence with my cousin until we heard the front door slam shut behind Allegra.
Sarah bit her lip, a slight flush on her cheeks. “I’m sorry if I was pushing. I didn’t know her relationship with her parents was so bad. I mean, I know Aria has some issues with her mum, but they still talk. And she’s close to her dad. North said Wesley was a mess when Aria was kidnapped all those years ago. She never … she never said Allegra had a difficult relationship with them.”