I sucked in a sharp breath and forced a proper smile onto my face.
“Fine. I'll handle it.”
Only then did Vincent reach over and pat my head, satisfied.
The other guests at the gala gave me a wide berth, as if by silent agreement. When no one was watching, I slipped out to the balcony to breathe.
“Vince, you're really gonna marry that hick?”
I recognized the voice. One of Vincent's closest friends.
I turned my head and saw them clustered together around Vincent, deep in conversation.
“Gotta hand it to you though, you've got her trained. She jumps when you say jump, like a damn dog!”
“Living up to the legend, man. Any tips for the rest of us?”
Vincent swirled the liquor in his glass, his expression unreadable.
He let the anticipation build to its peak before he finally spoke.
“Someone like Laura who's been scraping the bottom her whole life? Throw her a few crumbs and she'll worship the ground you walk on.”
“But if you want total control, you need leverage. Something to hold over her.”
“The donor heart I got for her father wasn't exactly healthy. Every time the old man has an episode and needs treatment, that's another chain tying Laura to her place.”
“Being Mrs. Vance comes with too much baggage. I didn't want Bonnie to go through all that.”
Whatever they said after that, I couldn't hear anymore.
A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears. The glass slipped from my fingers and shattered on the ground.
I bit down on my lip until it bled, pressed both hands over my face, and crouched down. Tears streamed through the gaps between my fingers without stopping.
The phone in my pocket buzzed again and again.
I answered it numbly.
“Is this Ms. Simmons? Your father has gone into sudden shock. We suspect cardiac rejection. He's in the operating room now……”
At some point it had started pouring outside. I grabbed fistfuls of my skirt and ran straight into the rain.
By the time I reached the hospital, the light above the operating room had just gone dark.
The surgeon's face told me everything. My lips trembled, and my heart dropped like a stone.
“Ms. Simmons, I'm sorry for your loss.”
I stood frozen. Every sound in the world cut out at once.
They wheeled Dad out under a white sheet, the ruined heart still inside his chest. A heart that had never been his.
Even in death, he hadn't been left whole.
I collapsed over his body and wailed, my chest so full of hatred for Vincent Vance there was no room left for anything else.
I knelt there until my knees went numb. Then I took care of everything, and walked back to the Vance residence like a corpse that hadn't learned to stop moving.
The bedroom door was ajar. The wedding gown that had hung neatly on its rack was now on Bonnie Fox's body.
It looked like it had been through a war, crumpled into a rag.
Vincent's brow twisted the moment he saw the state of me.
“Where the hell have you been? Why do you look like that?”
I didn't answer his question. I turned to Bonnie and smiled.
“Vincent said the baby in your belly is mine to deal with.”
“I've already booked you an abortion appointment for tomorrow. You're welcome.”
Bonnie shrieked, clutching her stomach, and slapped me across the face.
Vincent's expression went black. His hand closed around my throat and he slammed me against the wall, pinning me there.
“Laura Simmons, look at yourself. Is this how a Vance wife behaves?”
“Vicious and jealous. Everything in that 'Perfect Wife' handbook went in one ear and out the other, didn't it?”
He flung me aside, turned, and bent down to gently console the sobbing Bonnie.
I lay on the floor coughing so hard I thought my lungs would come up. My face burned red from the thin trickle of air I could drag in, and tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.
The 'Perfect Wife' handbook on the nightstand had been knocked to the floor when I fell. Every single page was dog-eared from how many times I'd studied it.
I laughed bitterly, picked up the handbook, and hurled it out the window.
“Vincent, I don't want to be your perfect wife anymore.”
His hand stilled on Bonnie's back. The look he gave me was pure disgust.
“What are you throwing a fit about now?”
“Without me, who's going to cover your father's follow-up treatments?”
He was coaxing me. The way you'd coax a dog.
“Be good. Stop making a scene. I need to see a graceful, well-mannered bride at the wedding.”
I wiped the tears that had come from laughing, and said nothing more.
Three days later, the wedding went ahead as planned.
The Vance family had booked the largest hotel in the city. Every guest who walked through the doors was either rich or powerful.
Vincent straightened his bow tie in the mirror and felt, to his own surprise, a flicker of anticipation for the ceremony.
He thought of the girl whose whole world revolved around him, and in a moment of softness, decided that next time he'd arrange a better heart for her father.
The guests took their seats. Marlene smiled toward the grand doors where the bride would enter, her expression unreadable.
The doors swung open. The bride stepped into the room under every watching eye.
Vincent's smile froze on his face.
