Page 18 of Till Death Do Us Part

She smirked. “Simple,” she said. “I’m your wife.”

Chapter 8

elaine

“My wife?”

Vera smirked. “I think she’ll see reason once she sees who you’re with,” she said. “Besides, if the family reports us as being married, Whitecliff will be faster to find out their plans have been foiled. They might start backing down even if we haven’t officially gotten married.”

“But I… my family wouldn’t believe…”

“They don’t need to believe. Just to hear an excuse for why I’m there.” She picked up the can again, pulling the top open. “Now, let’s eat. We’ll have to be quick so we have time to go shopping before we head over.”

“Shopping? For what?”

She laughed. “For rings, obviously.”

Vera took the stolen car again, and we drove back into town, where we went first, to Vera’s annoyance, to buy a carrier for Clara.

Once she was closed up in the carrier in the backseat, Vera sat next to me in the driver’s seat, looking me over.

“Not that you don’t look beautiful, but you look like you just got in a fight in a dumpster and then slept in a safehouse.”

“Should we go back to my place and we can—”

“Not unless you want to get jumped by Whitecliffs.” She frowned. “I got word that Yulia is in town.”

“Yulia?”

“High-ranking Whitecliff operative. We’ve gotten into a lot of scrapes, her and I.” She looked away. “She’s the one who gave me this scar.”

The long, angry scar along her face… if someone who could do that even to Vera, I wouldn’t survive long around them. “So what do we do instead?”

“We’ll get you some new clothes. Have any stores you want to shop at?”

“Oh…” My stomach fluttered, and I looked down, blushing. “There was this… this dress at the secondhand store that I wanted, but I didn’t want to waste the money…”

“Tell me the address.”

I guess there wasn’t much use in trying to save Caitlyn’s twenty dollars right now. “It’s on the corner of Walnut and 6th.”

My heart sank when we got to the shop and I found the dress was gone, the window display rearranged. Vera led me inside, and I tried not to sulk, but the spark of magic from that dress was gone, and all the clothes were just that—clothes. Things I was wearing to help me escape from people who wanted me dead. Cold, hard reality.

“What’s the matter?” Vera said gruffly when I was taking my time looking through the racks. “I thought you had something specific you wanted.”

“Oh, well… it seems like it’s gone. It was up in the window, but you know, it’s a secondhand store, so…”

She pursed her lips. “Where in the window?”

“It’s been replaced with the white polo shirt,” I said, and I frowned when she turned and marched towards the counter. “Vera?”

I followed her to where she cut in line at the counter, muscling into the current interaction, and she said, “You had a white dress on display in the window yesterday. Right there, where the white polo is now. Do you still have it in stock?”

“Vera—please,” I said, my face hot, my heart beating faster. I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of anybody even offering to take me to the shop to buy the dress I wanted, let alone… whatever this was.

The attendant frowned. “Ma’am, this is a secondhand shop. We don’t track every item like a big box store. If it’s gone, it probably sold. Have a nice day.”

Vera glanced at the employee’s nametag. “Listen, Roxanne,” she said, her voice so cold and sharp it stopped everyone in line, the whole store holding its breath as they watched her speak. “My wife is looking for something very specific. She’s had a hard day. I trust you are going to make this right… and tell me where we can get that dress.”