Page 103 of Betrayal and Vows

I don’t know if she meant it.

I don’t know if she’s trying to protect me—or push me away for real.

But either way, I’ve lost her.

Chapter 18

Lena

Irefuse to get out of bed.

I’m sick.

At least that’s what I tell the maid that brought my breakfast.

I physically cannot do it. I can’t make myself walk down that aisle and marry a man I hate.

I pull the covers over my head and try to block out the world.

But I can't stop replaying last night. The way Mikhail's fingers felt like shackles around my wrist.

How he kept pulling me into dark corners, his breath hot and disgusting against my ear as he whispered about what he planned to do to me after the ceremony.

"You're going to be such a good wife," he'd murmured, his hand sliding too low on my back. "So obedient."

I smiled and nodded because that's what was expected. What I was trained to do. But inside, I was screaming.

The champagne helped.

By my fourth glass, the edges of everything went soft and blurry. I could almost pretend the hungry stares from the men ogling me weren't real.

Almost ignore the way the women whispered behind their hands about my dress, about how Mikhail was getting damaged goods.

“He’s parading his whore.”

“I heard he shares in return for favors.”

Another had laughed."Mikhail does like his women with experience."

I'd drained my glass and reached for another.

And another.

I was daring Anton to stop me.

But he never did.

He stood back and watched me get drunk.

My mother tried to lecture me about excessive drinking, but she wasn’t who I wanted to hear from.

Anton had stood there without saying a word. He didn’t try to steal me away for a kiss. No brush of his hand across my back.

He abandoned me to the wolves.

When Anton came to my room last night, I could still smell Mikhail's cologne on my skin.

Could still feel the phantom touch of all those eyes undressing me.