Page 38 of Vicious Kingdom

“Tell us what?” My mother sat forward eagerly.

My father finally looked interested in my life. The one thing I always wanted, and now it was twisted. All wrong. The restaurant suddenly felt too warm, too close. The weight of three expectant gazes pressed down on me like a physical force.

“I asked Annaliese if we should get married.” David’s smile was car-salesman shiny.

My throat constricted.

“Oh my word!” My mother’s shriek pierced the restaurant’s refined atmosphere. Several nearby diners turned to stare as she pressed her hands to her chest dramatically. “Alfred, did you hear that? Our little girl is getting married!”

Little girl.

It almost sounded matronly. As though she hadn’t birthed me, then sent me straight into the arms of the hired help.

My father’s face lit up with the first genuine smile I’d seen from him in months. “Well, I’ll be damned. Congratulations, sweetheart.” He reached across the table to shake David’s hand vigorously. “You’re getting a hell of a woman, son.”

Son….

The room spun slightly as I gripped my wine glass, knuckles white. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. David was supposed to be my shield, not my shackle. The fake engagementwas meant to buy me time, not trap me in front of my parents’ gleaming faces.

“When’s the wedding?” My mother was already pulling out her phone. “I have to tell your Uncle Jon! He’ll want to come over to join us for drinks. He would have been here already, but his social calendar was booked for the evening!”

“Excuse me.” I pushed from the table, nearly knocking over my wine in my haste, and hurried as fast as my bummed foot would let me move. My heartbeat was a frantic drum against my ribs, matching the uneven rhythm of my steps as I made for the back hallway. I pushed through the heavy doors, gasping and frantic.

This wasn’t how any of this was supposed to happen. But as I breathed hard, pressed in the back hall of the restaurant, the notion dawned on me that this was a setback. I could let it conquer me, or I could continue to be the master of my own story.

It was clearly time to end things with David.

Resolve snaked through me, fierce and stubborn. David was never meant to be permanent. A fleeting character in my story, not the final act. I had to finish this, to move on to a new thread in the narrative. I crafted the plot how I chose. I always had. And I would again.

I took a deep, steadying breath. My parents could not win. I would not let them. I would not let David. My chest still ached with panic, but the burn was now fueled by determination. I just had to be smart. Be patient. That was something I knew how to do. I could play this game a little longer if I had to.

My decision was made. It was clearly time to break things off.

I pushed off from the wall and hobbled back to the dining room. David and my parents were waiting, eyes trained on the empty hallway behind me. I forced my mouth into a smile, mylips a little too tight, and rejoined them. They could talk about weddings. I was dumping David the moment we were alone.

Chapter 15 – Annaliese

The happy couple were both on their phones. They’d smiled as they cut the cake, simpered as they shared a first dance, but then went back to ignoring one another the moment the guests began to mingle during dinner.

Insects crawled under my skin.

Not from watching their apathy, but from the fact that I needed to escape. I was in danger of being trapped. The man who’d tormented me most my life was here, and I caught more than one secret, slimy smile directed at me.

To the world, it seemed completely normal that he hovered within my vicinity. He was popular, well-liked. My parents adored him.

And I couldn’t tell anyone that the pretty smiles hid a hellish truth.

No one would believe me. The Tormentor hurt me in more ways than one. I was ashamed that I was fully grown and still at his mercy. It sickened me to know I was stuck whenever he was around. The people closest to me didn’t see what was going on right under their noses.

Especially my parents.

My uncle and my father were both occupied in tedious conversations with the throngs of businessmen vying for their attention. While they were busy showing off their near celebrity status, my mother drank one too many cosmopolitans with her friends. That left me alone with my cousin Jonatan to keep me company. I shifted in my seat, counting the minutes until I could excuse myself from the Symphony Center.

Tapping his fingers in time to the music, my cousin watched the crowd, oblivious to my discomfort.

“It’s a nice wedding. Why aren’t you enjoying yourself?” he murmured, his voice carrying that slight Germanic accent that made women swoon.

Unlike me, he’d been born and raised in Germany before our fathers migrated to America, where mine met and married my mother. I didn’t enjoy his company. Older than me, Jonatan and I never got along.