Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“It’s just another runway,” I muttered.
Canon in D filtered through the church as it moved from the strings of the quartet I had chosen. The sound bloomed and magnified. The doors opened before me. I stood, silhouetted in the atrium of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as hundreds of guests rose to their feet to watch my entrance.
For a split second, I faltered. Debated. Wondered if Lark was right. If I should turn around and run. But it was a moment, and then it was gone.
I stepped forward. Virginia straightened out my train and then the never-ending veil as I walked past row after row of guests. Their faces were a blur. I kept my eyes forward as the altar came into focus. The priest in his ceremonial attire. A line of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Everyone identical.
Then Camden.
He stood in a tuxedo that had been handcrafted by a designer in London. I wasn’t close enough yet to discern his expression. That was probably for the better.
I began to recognize more people. My crew taking up the front rows. My mother seated so regally beside my brother, David, and his little Texas bride. Camden’s father, Carlyle, seated next to Elizabeth Cunningham. To my surprise, they’d recently eloped. Next to Carlyle was Camden’s heinous sister, Candice, and then Elizabeth’s daughter, Harmony, who hated me. My new “family.”
And then I landed on Penn. My Penn. I just wanted him to look at me. To object. To do something.
But he just made eye contact with me. Looked sad for me. Pity.
Penn Kensington pitied me.
I’d told Lark that I wouldn’t run. But I hadn’t known until that moment that I’d been hoping Penn would object. Not just stand there with his new girlfriend as I went through with it. He really wasn’t going to stop it.
I swallowed and turned back to the man I was marrying. I was finally close enough to see the smirk on Camden’s strong features. A beautiful exterior hiding a dark interior.
His look said only one thing—mine. After tonight, I would belong to him. He’d own me.
And no one was even going to object.
Not even me.
I stepped up to the dais. No one was there to give me away. I had made this deal with the devil. And I would be the one to give myself to him.
Despite all of Camden’s faults, he was handsome. N, he was gorgeous. It honestly wasn’t fair that someone with that face and body also had the keys to an empire. His dark hair shone in the low lighting. His expression was stern and purposefully blank. As if, even here, even now, he didn’t want me to discern what he was thinking. No emotions from him. Not even on his wedding day. I’d expected it from his lips, but I never could understand how he hid behind his eyes. They were dark, so very, very dark. As if I were sinking into the Dead Sea. Drowning. They should have been windows. Instead, he’d closed the shutters, and he was once again a mystery.
“Katherine,” he said evenly as he held out his hand.
This was the moment.
I could turn here. I didn’t have to go through with this arranged marriage. I didn’t have to marry him for his money. I didn’t have to live by this new contract. I could be a runaway bride.
Something hardened in his face as he waited a heartbeat and then another. Then I placed my hand in his.
I wasn’t running from him, but… to him. The only person willing to save me.
He helped me up the steps and before the priest. His eyes never wavered from mine. They were unreadable, but still, there was something else in them at that moment as the priest began the service. I hardly heard what was said. The words so familiar that they didn’t register. All that really existed in that moment was Camden Percy. There was no reassurance.
I knew what he wanted from me, what I had signed in that contract. My body in exchange for his money and name.
I had no interest in his heart, and he had no interest in mine. It was better this way. Easier.
The priest gestured to me. “Do you, Katherine, take Camden for your lawful husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
The room went perfectly silent. As if everyone was waiting on bated breath for my answer.
Camden nodded his head once, decisive and clear. And I knew there was no turning back.
I squeezed Camden’s hand and nodded. “I do.”
Part I
I Don’t
1
Katherine
My patent leather high heels clicked against the hardwood floor. I reached the wall, pivoted, and walked back the length of the room, wearing a path in my penthouse.
My phone buzzed. Again.