I sighed. “I know you are. Even if he changed his mind about me, he’s still an egotistical, crass, judgmental prick. Just another one of the arrogant, power-hungry men I grew up with. I’m trying to escape this fucked up world with all its politics and power trips. Now, I’ve become another pawn in that game of chess the powerful men play.”
“And you won’t even entertain the idea of turning down the deal?” Amy asked.
“I would if I thought I could secure my current arrangement. It’s not ideal, but I make it work. What scares me is that I could be recalled to home base and told my career is over at any given time. What then? I’d be worse off than I am now.”
Amy gave me a look of pity, and I hated it. I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me. I wanted her to help me find a way to have my cake and eat it too, but that seemed like a pipe dream. “It sounds like you’ve made your choice.”
That set me off. “There is no choice, don’t you get it, Amy? Everyone else got to choose what made them happy, except me.Mom and Dad got a choice. You and Liam got a choice. Hell, even Natalie got the choice to leave when her marriage didn’t work out. I’m being forced into a marriage I don’t want for the sake of the family, wrapped up in pretty packaging and disguised as my freedom. I’ll never be free so long as I’m tied to Preston.”
Just when I thought I’d stunned Amy into silence with my outburst, she grabbed my hand. “We’re sisters now, and I think it’s time I share something with you. Something only Natalie, Hannah, and Jaxon know. Not even your parents.” Jaxon was Natalie’s new husband.
I was honored that Amy wanted to share a secret with me. She was one of the handful of people who knew about Arabella Reign being mine, so she knew I trusted her explicitly. Knowing she returned the sentiment made me feel like we genuinely were sisters.
Curious, I took a deep breath. “Okay.”
Amy turned to face me fully while sitting beside me on the bed, tucking a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. “You know that Liam and I eloped, but you don’t know that we had an arrangement.”
Wait. I remembered how angry my grandfather and dad were when they got word that Liam ran off to Vegas and married Amy. There was no way they’d had an arranged marriage.
“What kind of an arrangement?”
She sighed. “You know how you’re considering this because you love your job?” I nodded, so she continued, “Well, it just so happens that I was up for a promotion at work, and the jerks I worked for made it very clear that unless I was married, I wouldn’t get the job.”
The pieces fell into place. “Liam offered to marry you.” My voice was barely above a whisper.
Amy smiled. “God, I thought he was crazy when he brought the idea to me. I tried to tell him he couldn’t fix everything foreveryone, but you know how well he takes no for an answer. I was so annoyed that he was right—I needed his help. We signed a contract. Our marriage was to be on paper only so that I could get the promotion. No romantic entanglement, just roommates.”
As stunned as I was that their marriage wasn’t what it initially seemed, I argued, “But you two were friends first. You knew you could at least tolerate each other.”
“He wasn’t always my favorite person. You grew up with the stubborn man I married. You know what he’s like.”
“But you didn’t hate him.”
She conceded that point. “No. I didn’t hate him, but I didn’t love him either. I do now. I never saw it coming. We’d lived in the same house for years, and I never thought of him as more than Natalie’s brother-in-law who helped us raise the kids. Something shifted when we were forced together. I can’t explain it. It didn’t happen overnight but built over time. Maybe you and Preston can have that. You never know.”
“I appreciate you trying to help me make lemonade, Ames, but I just don’t see it. You can’t turn a lifetime of hatred into love.”
Amy shrugged. “You know what they say about the line between love and hate.”
Sinking back into a reclined position on the bed, my thoughts escaped my lips before I could stop them. “Can you two have lots of babies so I can be let off the hook?”
“What did you just say?” Amy tensed beside me, green eyes widening in shock.
Oops. I’d almost forgotten about the whole Leo not being blood thing, but it was somewhere in my subconscious. Now, I realized I may have just spilled a family secret. Grandfather had explicitly told me it didn’t leave that room. I tried to play it off with a wave of my hand. “Nothing.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she searched my eyes. Calmly, she asked, “You know, don’t you?”
Playing dumb, I retorted, “Know what?”
Amy sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my God, you know.”
Deflect. Deflect. Deflect.
“Maybe I know something different? Ever think of that? This family has too many secrets to keep track of anymore.”
“Fine. On the count of three, we say it at the same time. Worst case, it’s not the same thing, and we trade secrets. We know we’re good to keep it quiet.”
“Deal.” I nodded.
