Page 50 of Vow to Claim You

She is gone.

She has been gone since I signed those papers. I have only just understood it tonight.

I unwrap my fingers from the robe and finally turn from the window. I take the first step away from the girl who no longer lives in this room.

Tomorrow, I will be his.

Tonight, I will bury her.

The following morning comes far too quickly. I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Luca. His swollen face. His blood. The way he looked at me...

I stand in front of the mirror, smoothing my hands over the black knitted turtleneck dress hugging my frame. I tie my hair back at the base of my neck, low and neat, and slide my mother’s pearl studs into my ears. My eyes are still faintly swollen despite the cold water I pressed to them for ten minutes. Concealer handles the rest.

I grab my phone from the nightstand and head downstairs.

Breakfast takes place at exactly eight o’clock every morning.

Not eight oh five.

Not eight ten.

Exactly eight.

Vidar’s rule, and Vidar’s rules are the kind that get tested only by people who don’t intend to live the week. I am downstairs at seven fifty-eight.

The dining room is the largest space in this house and the coldest. Long table of oak wood polished to a mirror, twelve high-backed chairs, four places set.

Vidar is already seated at the head of the table like a king holding court, cane resting against his chair, his presence cutting through the room before anyone speaks a word.

But he isn’t the first thing I notice.

He is.

Aric stands by the window in a black turtleneck.

We match. Like we planned it.

No. Don’t be ridiculous.

There is no we in that sense. There never was. Silly coincidence. Nothing more.

“God morgen, svigerinne.” Eero arrives a beat behind me, and his voice pulls me from my thoughts.

He drops into the seat left of Vidar and lifts his coffee in a lazy salute. His white-blond hair is a mess he hasn’t bothered to fix, and the scar through his eyebrow tilts when he grins.

“Good morning.”

“Only good?” He places a hand dramatically over his heart. “That’s all I get?”

“I haven’t had coffee yet.” A reluctant tug pulls at my mouth despite everything. Leave it to Eero to find a crack of warmth in a house built of ice.

“A fair point.” His grin widens. “I’ll forgive you.”

“How generous,” I tease back, though my tone stays level.

Eero beams like I’ve just paid him a compliment.

I don’t understand how two brothers can be so completely different.