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ONE

VANCE

Tension was so I was so accustomed to in my life I wore it effortlessly, the way my father wore a bespoke suit as a second skin, as he did now He sat in the chair across fro room, dressed in his standard three-piece black suit

My gaze snagged on the colorful silk peeking out from his front breast pocket

His girlfriend’s doing, for sure Macalister Hale had obsessed over tradition his whole life and embodied a classic look He much preferred people’s attention stay on hi him to be fashion-forward Or at least to join this century

Any other tie had such power over him, but I was too distracted to focus on it My father had shown up at the Hale estate and announced he had so, likely because if I’d known he was co, I’d have avoided him

So, I’d reluctantly followed him into the front room of the house which had once been his and dropped down onto the couch my former stepmother had reupholstered the year before her death

Of course, I iretted my decision

Alice looht of unspoken words pressed down onit difficult to breathe in my father’s presence He already knehat I’d done, but it did nothing to ease uilt

“This will only take a minute,” he said

His tone was full of his usual co indifference, the one that was so effective at telling you only his opinion ht, as if he were perched in a throne and not a chair, but again—this was norure to the rest of the world He made other people uncomfortable with a simple look

But I saw through it today, and this hat had me so distracted

Whatever he wanted to discuss, it gave hireat and powerful Macalister Hale seemed

Nervous

My stomach churned with unease My father didn’t do nervous I sed thickly Fuck, was he going to bring up Alice? Was this the conversation we desperately needed to have—the one I still wasn’t prepared for?

My father’s gaze shifted away fro to ask Sophia to be my wife”