around one day. After we move out,” I added. “As for the blushing bride who’ll help us do that, it’ll be whoever understands my situation and will marry me anyway. I won’t lie and drain some poor girl of her money. She takes me and Mom on, and in six years when I’m legally allowed to take over the shares Grandma left me from Steele Electrics, her investment will pay off.”
“You have more to offer than a pile of money. You can find someone who sees that, Nathan. Choosing your family doesn’t have to mean choosing unhappiness.”
“I’m not in love with anyone on this island, Belle, so what else could it mean?”
She didn’t have an answer for me.
The sun beat down our necks, pushing us toward the cool shuttle and separate seats redrawing the wall between us. Still, Belle’s temple rested on my shoulder.
She’s taking pity on me. After hearing just how much life has shat on me, she doesn’t have it in her to toss me over any more balconies. I’m so pathetic even the hitman the colonel sent to kill me would stop and take me for a drink first.
“Guys?”
We looked up. Zion and Mila waved us over.
“We’re leaving.”
“Coming.” Belle hopped off the bench, racing to join them.
She didn’t look back.
BELLE
I fussed with my phone. Taking the tiny little sim card out and putting in the new one. The discarded sim was flung at the trash bin and pinged off the side.
How Mal found my new numbers as quickly as I change them, I didn’t know. How he found us as quickly as we moved, I didn’t know. Why he couldn’t let me go, I would never know.
Nathan’s story of a young woman trapped in the grip of a man who’d do anything to possess her hit me harder than I expected. As we sat there holding hands, I had a crazy, wild thought that I should marry Nathan. That brief notion took hold of me, spinning out into a formed idea with accompanying visions of our future, and I hurried away from him before I said it out loud.
It wasn’t about Nathan.
It was about her.
Vanessa Prince. Trapped in that room. Recalling bits and pieces of her life and the majority of it misery at the hands of her father.
After everything she’d done to get away from him, he couldn’t win.
“He can’t have her.”
The six on the screen blurred through my tears, warping it into an eight.
Clearing my throat, I wiped a palm over my damp cheeks. Whether it was six or eight o’clock, I was late for dinner.
I changed out of my dress into jeans and a lace peasant top. Most people didn’t know I matched my clothes to my mood. Simple outfit = Serious Belle.
Considering marrying the ex-lover who shredded my heart in a blender was as serious as it gets.
Nathan is Nathan. Zion had it right that plenty of girls would marry him even if they had to wait fifty years for his inheritances to come through. I’ve heard said girls say much the same. It doesn’t have to be me.
There she went again. My voice of reason. Her logic was sound. Her points backed up by evidence. But all through her speech, all I pictured was that sweet woman I spoke to on the phone, listening to me drone on about fabric patterns and overcast stitching, and replying that I had talent for miles. It would take me wherever I wanted to go.
I saw Vanessa Prince... and over her shoulder stood Mal.
I could lay out terms, I told myself. We’d live apart like Carter kept suggesting.
Nathan would live with his mom in their own house and I’d ensure she had everything she needed. In the meantime, I’d be off at college and then moving on where life took me. We wouldn’t sleep together even if it is the only thing we’re good at. No kids even though little Jameson would be adorable.
Separate lives.
I could handle that and, most importantly, Vanessa would be free.
“She has to be free.”
I threw open my door and met with a raised fist.
“Good timing,” Preston said. “Going down to the dining hall?”
“Yes.”
“Want to join me instead? My private eating spot also comes with an unrestricted menu. Chef will make anything we want.”
“I don’t want to add to her load. She’s got her hands full feeding almost forty people.”
“Make it simple, then. Grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup.”
Preston ambled off and I fell in step with him without thinking about it.