managed to dupe everyone into believing his grand plans.
Yes, Gabriel had spent weeks pushing his agenda and convincing the Fellowship that the matches created stronger family bonds and guaranteed future generations of Sunrise stewards.
The other members didn’t know Gabriel was just covering his ass.
“As his wife, I’ll help him to become his best self and give him children, a family, and stability so he can fulfill his purpose.”
Gabriel liked to spout big ideas like that, but his words held no substance. They sounded good, especially to the young, impressionable women who wanted a fairy-tale life.
If she asked the other four women why they’d agreed to get married without a lengthy courtship, she’d probably get the same exact answer.
None of them were prepared for reality.
Back when Gabriel’s father headed the Sunrise council, she might have agreed to a similar match if he’d suggested it, but she’d have wanted time to get to know the man first, to be sure. A man and woman should be tied together by their shared beliefs. They should be best friends as well as lovers.
She figured that out when she was sixteen and fell madly in love with Joseph. She tossed reason to the wayside and went to great lengths to see him as much as possible. She even snuck out for their romantic rendezvous. But like all young love, it was fleeting—especially when she caught Joseph kissing Renee.
And looking back now, she realized she’d never had another serious boyfriend because Gabriel had always been lurking in her life, trying to keep her all to himself. And it worked, because the other boys accepted there was something between them. Like Gabriel, they believed she was meant for him.
She’d simply put guys on the back burner and focused on her job and making Sunrise the best it could be.
“Alice, you’re only seventeen. Do you really want to be a wife and mother so young?”
“Babies are so sweet. I would love him or her so much.”
Of course she only thought about a cute baby, not what it would be like to take care of an infant day in and day out. Yes, a baby brought a lot of joy into your life, but taking care of them was a lot of hard work. And a husband . . . Alice had no idea what it meant to take care of and be a partner to a man. To have her life and decisions tied to that person.
She hooked her hand around Alice’s arm and tugged her out the door. When she got the girls out of here, she’d have a talk with Alice and the others about the reality of marriage and family, so they made informed decisions about the rest of their lives without pressure from Gabriel or their families.
The others had already piled into the van down the road.
Skye wanted to find her parents and sister, but feared she’d already taken too long to get away before Gabriel discovered her. She needed to get out of here before he found her and killed her to keep her quiet.
This was so much bigger than Lucy’s murder.
Her family didn’t know anything. She hoped they’d be safe. Gabriel couldn’t get rid of them without explaining or raising suspicions. Not now.
Ten feet from the van, Joseph stepped out in front of them, rifle hanging down his back by the strap over his shoulder. Guns at the compound were new, too. “Hey, Skye. Where are you going?”
Skye tamped down her rising panic, pushed Alice to keep walking to the van, and tried to talk her way out of this. “Gabriel suggested I treat the girls to a movie tonight.” The false brightness in her voice didn’t seem to alert him that anything was wrong.
Since their relationship had ended in disaster, all their encounters were fraught with tension. She hoped he took her anxiety as remnants of her resentment toward him.
Joseph stared past her down the road to the girls. “Are they excited about their weddings tomorrow?” Hesitation filled his voice and skepticism filled his eyes.
“Why wouldn’t they be?” She wanted to know if Joseph was still blindly going along with Gabriel or if he’d finally started thinking for himself again and saw the reality of what Gabriel was doing to Sunrise. To all of them.
“I wonder if they really know what they’re getting into.” His cynical expression answered that and made her think he didn’t wholly go along with the impending marriages.