Page 34 of Vows of Blood
No. That doesn’t seem likely. I step out of the room carefully, listening for him. I don’t know what I’m expecting. I doubt he’ll just jump out and fireman carry me back to the bedroom. Not again, anyway.
I get to the living room and there’s no one there. There’s also a sense that there’s no one in the penthouse at all. I look in the study. The couch bed is out, sheets messily spread out over the mattress, but no Alexei.
I go back to the living room on my way to the kitchen. I might as well make myself a cup of coffee while planning my next escape. Wherever he is, I doubt he’ll be back soon.
I don’t get but a few steps before I see the note on the coffee table. I stop and read it. I get about halfway through and shake my head. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Alexei sounds almost like a halfway decent guy.
Well… a little more than almost. He sounds pretty sincere. He’s probably just as tired of all this as I am, actually. Besides, whether he’s sincere or not, I guess he’s right. No matter how angry I am at my father for putting me in this situation, there are bigger pieces at play. I’d be stupid if I didn’t consider that.
I sit down on the couch, silently debating his request to stay long enough for him to return. I don’t even know when he left or where he was going. For all I know, he’s the one who left town this time.
Ugh. This is all so stupid.
I get up to get my coffee and I hear the ringtone on my phone. I rush back to the bedroom.
It’s Annie. Her name comes up on the screen like a savior. I answer it excitedly.
“Annie??”
“Hey,” she says in a shaky voice. She sounds nervous or maybe like she’s been crying. “How’ve you been?”
“How’ve I been? Are you kidding me right now? Oh, my God, where did you go?”
She takes a slight pause and says, “I’m sorry, Sis. I had to run. I just couldn’t go through with that whole thing.”
The urge to vomit everything that’s happening to me is almost impossible to resist. I want to give her a second to tell me her side of things, though. Maybe tell me where she is now. “Yeah, well, you could have at least let me in on it.”
“I didn’t even know I would do it myself until I was in your car,” she said. “It’s like, I was standing there in that wedding dress looking at myself and thinking about it… thinking about how that day was supposed to be the happiest day of my life and yet again, it was just one more thing that was all about Dad.”
No kidding,I thought.
“How is he?” she asks. “I imagine he didn’t take my disappearing act very well.”
“No.” I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at the bathroom door, thinking about Alexei and the wedding and just everything. “He, uh, he made me step in.”
I think I hear her gasp, then she hisses, “What?”
“Dad made me marry Alexei Mechnikov instead of you. I’m sitting in his penthouse right now.”
“Oh… oh, my God. Izzy, I… I never thought he would… Oh, my God.”
“Yeah. We were married roughly a week ago.” I go to touch the ends of my hair, only to find them gone. I rub the back of my neck instead.
“Are you okay? Did… did he hurt you?”
Annie was the only one who knew that I was still a virgin, so I know what she’s really asking. “No,” I tell her. “It’s fine, though, you know? I mean, it’s not like I wasn’t saving myself for marriage.”
“Yeah, but… but it wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I’m so sorry, Izzy.”
There’s a part of me that wants to tell her the details of my honeymoon night. I don’t know, maybe to take away the guilt she’s got to be feeling or to lighten the mood. Maybe if she knew that despite it all, it was probably the best I’ve felt in my life, she might feel better about having to leave me here.
“It is what it is,” I say instead. “Thanks for stealing my car, by the way.”
I think I hear her smile. “It was either your car or the dress designer’s. I figured you wouldn’t call the cops on me if it was your car.”
Maybe I should have. They might actually have found you before Dad decided to auction me off.“Where are you, anyway?”
“Safe,” she says. “Out of Fortune… and out of New York State.”
