Chapter 10: Live here
The rest of the meeting dragged on, but without Roman, he had something to attend to and left first.
"I promise to protect her," Collin vowed, his voice firm. And Patricia could only watch, helpless, as he made the same promise he once whispered to her... now meant for someone else. He didn’t even give her a chance to explain, didn’t ask a single question, just moved on like she meant nothing.
And her sister, who had cried so bitterly just days ago now sat grinning from ear to ear, clinging to him like he was going to disappear if she left him. Patricia should have known better. The tears had been a performance. Clara had never lost at anything before, and she wasn’t going to start now.
Unable to bear the sight any longer, Patricia slipped away when no one was watching. Thankfully, everyone was too consumed with their own excitement to notice her retreat.
Back in her room, she locked the door behind her and collapsed onto the floor, her body trembling as the tears came flooding out, raw and uncontrollable. Everything she had carefully planned had crumbled right before her eyes. All that remained was her dream job, if it was even still hers. She hadn’t checked in for two days and they might have fired her already.
The man she was supposed to be married to was now someone else’s. And she...she was nothing more than a pawn being offered up as a second wife to a man who couldn’t care less about her. His heir? The thought made her laugh bitterly through the tears. The joke was on them, she would never let Roman close enough for that. If they wanted a child so badly, let Clara give them one.
The following morning, Patricia packed her belongings by herself. Not a single hand lifted to help which was not surprising, given her stepmother’s influence. But she didn’t care. She had no plans to ever return to this house again. And now that she was no longer carrying their name, she was finally free to start over, just as soon as she found a way to annul the nightmare of a marriage.
It only took ten minutes to pack everything because she had next to nothing. No one had ever cared enough to buy her new clothes. The only time she got any was when the old woman shopped for her granddaughters and threw in a few items out of obligation. College had forced her to buy some of her own, but with what little money she had, it was never enough.
She loaded her things into the car the old woman had unexpectedly given her. Just as she was about to board, she heard her mother’s voice.