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The rest of the party is a blur, we don’t retreat back upstairs, instead we drink and laugh and dance like no one and nothing else in the universe matters.
Carson officially introduces me to his parents as his fiancé and I’m surprised to find that they’re over the moon for us. Apparently his father sent Carson his great-grandmother’s engagement ring the very first time he saw us together on video chat. His parents are wonderful, sweet, and unassuming people considering how rich and successful they are. Both of their families were in shipping and they met and got engaged around the same age as us.
During the time we chatted with them, they tried to convince me that Carson and I should join them and start to travel the moment we finish senior year. When his mom pulled out her cell and started scheduling their jet to take us to meet them in Japan after graduation, Carson pulled me away from them with a laugh.
For hours we dance and kiss and ignore the rest of our guests in favor of each other. “Shall we sneak off?” I ask with a happy smile.
“I don’t ever want to sneak again,” he laughs, scooping me off the ground and into his arms bridal style. “I’m taking my fiancé to bed,” he announces loudly, eliciting a rumble of laughter and a few catcalls from the others who are still enjoying the free flowing cocktails and Michelin starred chef’s food.
Burying my face in his neck, I giggle as he practically runs from the ballroom with me in his arms. When he jolts to an abrupt stop, I lift my head, the smile immediately falling from my face as I see my parents blocking our exit, their angry expressions focusing on us.
“Vanessa, Freddie, if you’ll excuse us, we were just heading up to bed,” Carson says, the barely restrained vitriol in his tone making his words short and stilted, like he’s forced them past gritted teeth.
“Was all of this just to gloat, or did you think this little stunt would make a difference. You’re a fool, a stupid, naive—” Mom starts
“Vanessa, shut the fuck up,” Carson growls. “Who the hell do you think you are to speak to her like that? She’s your daughter, your flesh. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Mom’s mouth curls into a sneer, her lips parting as she moves to speak, but Carson interrupts again.
“Carrigan has more class in one of her fake fingernails than you will ever have. She doesn’t need to relinquish who she is, her future, and her choices all for the sake of money, and the moment that will was read that’s what you should have told her. You should have told your daughter to run from that toxic set of rules, you should have told her that money isn’t everything, especially when you already have more than you’ll ever need. But you didn’t, instead you brainwashed her, you manipulated her, you starved her, you broke her, and then reformed her into your puppet, and all in the pursuit of a fortune that was never going to be yours,” Carson laughs. “I bet you hate seeing her happy, healthy, and loved. I bet it galls you to see her succeed without that money, without you. The pair of you will always be exactly as you are now. The daughter of a man who lost his family’s fortune, and the disappointing son of a disappointing son. If either of you were more impressive, successful, powerful, then you’d have gotten that inheritance, the money, the power, and the control. But you were so insignificant that not only were you overlooked; you were dismissed in favor of a fourteen-year-old girl.”
His laugh is cold and so demeaning that goosebumps pebble along my arms just from the sound. “I bet it killed you to watch Tallulah land Arlo. The redundant spare twin that you chose to ignore and forget landed the white whale. Then to top that, the puppet you created woke up, she saw who you were and what you were having her do, and she stopped you. She broke the will and she took all that money from you. Was my name on that list?” he taunts. “I’m a Windsor, we control the seas, does it gall you to see my family’s ring on her finger? To know that under your influence I’d have given away every penny I had rather than be associated with the Archibalds, but that without it, I’d do anything to keep her, to give her my name, my family’s influence.”
Carefully lowering me to the floor, he maneuvers me behind him before taking a menacing step toward my alarmingly silent parents. “You had twins, the opportunity to create a dynasty, instead it’ll be Tallulah Lexington and Carrigan Windsor who create a legacy, and the Archibalds will be forgotten, nothing more than a footnote in the society pages.” Scoffing lightly, he shakes his head then turns to me, offering me his hand.
Placing my palm in his, I smile widely at him, pushing up onto my toes to press a soft kiss against his lips. “I love you,” I whisper.
With my words, all of his anger dissolves and he beams at me, the look of love on his face so clear no one, least of all me could ever doubt it.
“Carrigan,” my father hisses, my name a demand on his lips.
I don’t turn immediately, instead I press another kiss to Carson’s mouth then slowly sink back down to my heels and glance in his direction. “Yes?”
“Your mother and I want to speak to you,” he says, glancing at Mom, whose lips are pursed together in a very unflattering expression, her skin a grayish tone.
“Why?”
“What?” he asks, like me questioning him is so unheard of he doesn’t even understand the concept.
“Yes, why? You didn’t want to speak to me when you locked up my home and banned me from entering. You didn’t want to speak to me when you both changed your cell numbers. In fact, you haven’t wanted to acknowledge I exist since the moment you tried to force me to rape my sister’s fiancé in the hope I’d get pregnant. Which I wouldn’t have by the way, because I got a birth control implant fitted years ago. You’ve done nothing but insult and ridicule me, and now you want to talk to me. Well fuck you,” I cry. “Fuck you both, because I have nothing to say to you. As far as I’m concerned, I’m an orphan. It’s just me and Carson, Tally, Arlo, Olly, and Watson from now on. They’re my family and the sooner I can change my name to Windsor the better, because using the Archibald name fills me with shame,” I scream.
I know I’m being too loud, that our guests could have heard everything I’ve just said, but I don’t care. It feels so good to tell them how I feel, to fight back. Turning I look at my mom, seeing the barely restrained anger simmering just below her seemingly calm exterior. “I asked you once if you considered yourself evil and you told me I was an idiot. But the truth is you are evil mother, and so am I, because you made me that way. But the difference between us is that I can change, I have a lifetime to be better, but this is who you are,” I gesture to her. “Your best years are gone, and this life you’ve made for yourself is all you have left. Tally and I are a part of the most powerful old money alliance in decades, we could destroy you. But we won’t, we’ll just forget about you, we’ll overlook and ignore you, just the way you did with us. Then when you’re old and your plastic surgery has sagged, we’ll be powerful and rich and happy.” I pause, eyeing her dismissively. “But don’t worry mother, I doubt either of us will ever be fat.” With the condescending smile she helped me perfect, I say, “Thank you both so much for coming, enjoy the rest of your evening.” Then I look to my fiancé and smile, a real smile this time. “You ready?”
“More than ready, Mrs. Windsor,” he winks, scooping me up off the floor again and walking away. Neither of us bother to look back, and leaving my parents behind has never felt more sweet.
* * *
“I can’t believe we’re both engaged,” Tally says the next morning as we sit drinking coffee at the dining table in the huge hotel suite.
“I know,” I say, holding my hand out in front of me and sighing happily as I look down at the beautiful ring on my finger, before glancing at where Carson is filling the coffee machine across the room.
“Both of us engaged at eighteen, we’re such a huge old money cliché,” she giggles.
“Aren’t we,” I laugh. “I don’t care though, I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy,” I confess, looking up at her with earnest eyes. “I love him.”
“I can tell,” she says sweetly. “He loves you too. I’m so happy for you guys.”
“Me too.”
