Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“Didn’t you hear me? What if she was forced to marry him?” The fact that she’s not answering my calls or texts only adds to my conviction.
“I guess you’ll find out whenever you talk to her next. Until then, all you can do is wonder. I think you’ve done enough accusing for the time being.”
Why do I bother? There’s no point in trying to make her understand how dire this situation is. Saint marrying Calder is the strangest thing ever. They have no prior history together, aside from her small crush and that one blip of a thing on her birthday. That’s it.
Granted, I don’t know if she was forced, but it looked like it, and it felt like it. Plus, I can’t possibly believe that Saint would go through with marrying someone and not tell me or let me be part of her wedding. We’re best friends, or at least we were.
I consider the rodeo again. How Calder and Saint sat side by side, with Saint all cozied up to him. It was so unlike her. She’s never been much for PDA. Or any displays of affection at all. To me, it felt like two people putting on a show rather than a couple who couldn’t help but run off and get married because they’re so in love.
That’s my problem. It was an act, and I don’t understand how I’m the only one who can see it.
“With Saint’s disappearance cleared up, you can focus your attention on your own wedding,” my mother interjects, her voice lighter, happier. I swear, she gives me whiplash when her moods swing like this.
Of course that’s just what I want to do. Think about the marriage I’m being forced into. With a stranger I have yet to meet. I’ve jumped from one heaping pile of shit into the next.
“I know you think you don’t want this. I’m fairly sure my ears are still ringing from your over-the-top reaction,” she continues.
Over the top? Coming home from college to find out that I would never go back because I’m marrying the son of some rancher in Utah in less than a few months. When she first told me I’d be getting married, I thought it was abstract—something far off in the future. I don’t personally believe that my reaction was over the top, but sure. I mean, how else was I supposed to react? Was I supposed to thank her? “I was surprised. I thought you were joking about an arranged marriage to begin with.”
I didn’t really, but I was hoping she was.
She clicks her tongue before cutting the wheel to go around a guy who’s already going ten miles an hour over the speed limit. “You make it sound so ugly.” Maybe because it is. “You aren’t some piece of cattle, Allie,” she reminds me with a sigh. “This is a strategic alliance between families. I told you that.”
Sure, she did, after I screamed and begged for answers until my voice was hoarse, and I was completely exhausted. That was when she finally gave in and dropped the whole “isn’t this wonderful” act.
“We need help. Things... things aren’t going as well as they appear.”
I’ll never forget the ice-cold lump that landed in my stomach when she said that. Right away, I guessed what she was getting at, even if I didn’t want to believe it.
“What are you talking about?” I asked in disbelief. “This ranch is—”
“Over-leveraged,” she snaps before running a hand over her hair and smoothing it back even though it was already in place. “We’re in debt. Heavily in debt. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. And it’s not as if your schooling is cheap either.”
Oh, I know all about debt.
“Merging with the Lowry family is our only hope. It is our salvation,” she barked. All I can do is stare in silence while she paces back and forth behind her desk, wringing her hands. “Otherwise, what do you think will happen? Do you know how many people would be out of work if we lose this ranch? We would have to give up the land our family has nurtured and wrestled with and tamed for generations. All of it would be gone just like that.” She snaps her fingers. It echoes like a shotgun blast and rings in my ears.
“This marriage has to go through.”
I’ve never seen her like this. So intense. Desperate. Emma Porter doesn’t do desperate. “It must go through. You are our only hope, Allie.”
Our only fucking hope.
Marrying Jackson Lowry, who, from what I’ve seen online, looks like your typical spoiled, handsome, rich kid who probably doesn’t have a brain in his head and treats women like sheep.
I mean, he’s willing to marry me without ever having met me.
But then I’m doing the same thing, aren’t I?
Maybe he’s being forced too.