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All my life my father has used that word The contract needs to be fulfilled The contract needs to be negotiated The contract has been violated

Violated I have only ever heard that ht before we turned eighteen

Vincent squints his eyes at me As if he’s suspicious And that immediately makes me suspicious "What makes you say that?"

"Well, you say you’re my promise Aren’t there contracts in place for promises?"

"Harper," he says in a tone that cohteenth birthdays isn’t even legal Why would we need a contract that can’t be upheld?"

I can think of a dozen reasons right off the top of my head But the most obvious is to hold it over sohter promised to blahedy-blah That was a nice match, hets a fifty-year-old pervert from this pile of filth here

"I dunno," I say instead It’s obvious there are things going on with this little… arrange to tell uy, only he’s not insane and he’s not a killer He’s filthy rich, he’s got soo froirl to powerful woman in one breath

It’s like…

Wow

His fingers stroke the underside of le that runs through my body steals my words

I look down at his touches and then look up at his brilliant green eyes They are s"

"Why do you look so flushed?" he prods

He must knohy because he takes it one step further and picks up a strawberry from the small bowl of fruit on the side of my plate and touches it to my lips I open them, unsure what choice I have, and take a bite