Astor de Vries, will you have this man to be your husband; to live together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?”
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery was silent, the only noise the occasional whisper of paper fans and screech of rented chairs on the wood floors. It was hot, even for late June in New York, and the second-oldest church in the city did not have working air-conditioning that day.
One hundred and four of New York’s most elite people—her people, as Nina had been told all her life—were crunched onto the chairs, fanning their sweat-soaked faces while they awaited her response. It was a small crowd by de Vries standards. Even Aunt Heather’s second wedding was twice this size at the Vineyard, and that had been called a modest affair.
“Ahem.”
In the front row, Celeste de Vries’s light cough spoke volumes. She, like the rest of the family, looked perfectly put together in her light pink Chanel suit, her silver hair pinned into a classic French twist, and a wide-brimmed hat tipped elegantly to one side. Beside her, Nina’s mother, Violet, watched with only a slightly less bored than usual expression through her typical Chardonnay glaze. Edwin Astor, unsurprisingly, had elected not to come. Too short notice, he’d said. And with only two weeks between the announcement and this strange procession, he was right.
It was short notice. For everyone.
Nina looked down to where Calvin cuffed her shaking hands with his thick fingers, his thumb brushing over the diamond engagement ring that Nina had purchased for herself only a week before. She studied the lace that covered her body from wrist to neck like a straitjacket and forced herself to breathe. Then she looked to the floor, where the tips of her Zanotti pumps peeked from under the layers of tulle and taffeta.
Everything suffocated. Everything.
Don’t cry, she thought to herself as she pressed into her feet to stand tall. Don’t cry. You mustn’t cry. They’ll never stop talking about you if you do.
And wasn’t that the point of today? To fade into obscurity, away from their prying eyes? Marry a nondescript man in a nondescript dress and live a nondescript life until it didn’t matter anymore?
All she had to do was not cry while she did it.
It was very, very hard.
“Nina.”
For a moment, she saw him. Peppe. The slightly worn skin from too many summers under the olive trees. The salt-and-pepper hair curled a little too long over his ears. The large friendly eyes protected by the glasses that constantly slid down his long nose.
She imagined he was the one standing at this altar, clutching her hands, waiting for her to make the promise that would bind her to him for life. She imagined that they hadn’t said goodbye that terrible day at the station. That he hadn’t gone back to his wife and children. That she wasn’t here. Pregnant. Alone.
Well, she was alone. Wasn’t she?
“Nina!”
Nina blinked again, and it wasn’t Peppe’s voice calling her back to the present, but Calvin’s. The man who had stumbled upon her somewhere outside a nameless Queens clinic, then sat with her in silent support as she made a decision that would change the rest of her life.
For that, she supposed she owed him everything.
In front of them, people were openly whispering. Celeste scowled. How one person’s expression could contain all number of threats, Nina would never understand. But she felt them. And would endure all of them if she embarrassed herself and everyone there by doing what she desperately wanted—to walk out of this church and leave it all behind. Even if it meant she risked the sincere wrath of Celeste de Vries to claim her freedom.
Because it would be wrath.
Make an honest woman out of you.
It wasn’t a proposal. It wasn’t even a question. Calvin had made this marriage seem like he was doing Nina a favor. Her. One of the two apparent heirs to the great de Vries fortune. Him, a no-name, amateur investor. Doing her a favor.
Eric hadn’t shown today. Of course he hadn’t. Because of what Celeste had done to his girl. His love.
So many ruined because of her grandmother’s vengeance. Nina had witnessed the blackness in her grandmother’s face when she swore that no one in the family was above punishment. She had felt the sear of her threats when she announced to