The Reluctant Bride (Arranged Marriage #1)(7)

It always is.

And I’ll pay the price.

I always do.

“We need to pick out a dress for you to wear to your engagement party,” Mother says, pointing at me when I open my mouth. I slam my lips shut. “And nothing black. You want to look like a radiant bride-to-be, not a depressed goth girl.”

I can’t believe my mother just called me a goth girl. “Perfect. I can wear black to the wedding, then.” I smile serenely, knowing she’s going to turn me down, but attempting to shoot my shot anyway.

The expression of horror on my mother’s face is comical. “Absolutely not. You can’t wear black to your wedding, Charlotte. That’s so…unbecoming.”

Knew she’d say that. “The whole idea of this wedding is unbecoming if you ask me. I don’t even know him.”

“You’ll get to know him,” Mother says, like what’s happening to me is perfectly normal.

“At our engagement party?” I actually scoff, which I can tell irritates her. Everything I do seems to irritate her. “When is the wedding date anyway?”

“Sometime in late October, though it’s not one hundred percent confirmed yet,” she answers.

My favorite month, ruined thanks to getting married to a total stranger. “Great. That’s less than six weeks away.”

Why the rush? And who is this guy? Why would he so readily agree to marry me, sight unseen?

None of this makes sense.

“Darling, this is a good thing. A solid marriage you can count on. Someone to have children with. You know, your fiancé is rather attractive.” The gleam in my mother’s eye fills me with unease.

Everyone knows Louisa Lancaster hasn’t been faithful to her husband, which I suppose is fine because he’s not faithful to her either. They put on a united front, and for the most part, I do believe they’re united. They’re friendly. There’s no obvious animosity, but their relationship lost all spark long, long ago. Maybe it never had any spark to begin with. They continue to each have their affairs on the side, but nothing too blatant or obvious.

Yet somehow everyone knows my father’s penchant for women with bright red—overly fake—hair and my mother’s desire for a younger man. She keeps getting older, yet they stay the same age.

Around twenty. Twenty-five tops. Once they creep closer to thirty, it’s over.

And that’s gross.

“He is,” I say simply, wondering at the unfamiliar possessive feeling I’m experiencing toward him. Not that he belongs to me, but he is my future husband.

Meaning he’s off-limits to my mother.

“You must prepare for this engagement party, Charlotte. There’s no time to waste considering it’s happening in a week. Next Saturday evening. We’ll be having it here at the house. Something small and tasteful. Oh and you’re scheduled to take your engagement announcement photos Wednesday afternoon at one o’clock in the park.”

“What? I’m taking photos with him? There’s going to be an engagement announcement?” I jump to my feet and start pacing. I would never do this in front of my father, but my mother? I don’t care.

She watches me pace, wringing her hands together. “Of course, there will be. It’s what’s done—what’s always been done. You’re our only daughter and you’re about to get married, so we want to show you off.”

It takes everything inside of me not to laugh. That’s not the point of this at all, and she knows it. I know it too. This isn’t them being excited for their only daughter’s impending nuptials.

This is my father flexing to his business associates—and enemies—that he is uniting with this Constantine family and they’ll supposedly become a force to be reckoned with. For all I know, the Constantines want to flex the merger as well. I’m sure they do. Our family is richer than God.

And that’s all this is to them. To everyone. A business merger of two families coming together. Straight out of the Middle Ages.

“Does he even want to marry me?” I’m sure most everyone in my parents’ circles knows my reputation. There is no one lining up, eager to take me out.

Not that I care. Any guy I’d like, my father would probably shut down. He hates everything I’m interested in.

Sometimes I think he even hates me.

“Of course he does,” she says quickly.

Too quickly.

Is he being forced into this arrangement too?

“I should at least meet him first before we take our relationship public,” I say, coming to a stop in front of her. “Is this how you married Daddy? Were you strangers brought together as part of a business merger?”

Her gaze is full of sadness and my heart catches at the expression on her face that’s there and gone in an instant. “Do you want the truth? Or do you want me to lie and tell the story the public knows about our relationship?”

Chills wash over me, settling in my stomach. I don’t want to know any of it. I choose to remain silent.

Her smile is small. “That’s what I thought. Now get dressed. Properly. I’m going to take you shopping.”





Chapter Three




Perry


They wouldn’t let us meet for the first time alone.

No surprise. I’m sure they figured we’d concoct a plot together on how to overthrow this sham of an engagement, and they’re probably right. I would love to come up with something to get me out of this, but not be the one to make the move. I’d rather my future wife throw a tantrum and call it off, leaving me to walk away guilt-free.