Vows in Order | 18+

03 • alex

c h a p t e r

03

❦

unedited

NANA HERRERA BE DAMNED.

I disliked that senile swine as much as she disliked the dirt beneath her feet, which she loved to remind me that I equated to on multiple occasions.

However since the rise of Montgomery Manors & Suites due to my hard work and diligence, Nana Herrera had deemed me tolerable and would suffice from bringing me a keychain from one of her many endeavours.  

It was the same from me. The only person I could stand from my father's family at this point was my father alone.  He was the only non bigoted and selfless person sharing blood relations with the rest of his god forsaken clan. A clan that I was begrudgingly a part of.

Lola Beaumont was an eligible bachelorette, if not the most eligible bachelorette that the high society had to offer. On a table of billiards I had come across multiple men who had asked for her hand and gotten a dejection straight from her mother, the Claire Beaumont.

However when the grande dame of France sat across the grande dame of Spain and sealed our fates over a cup of tea, the irony of it all was not lost on me.

I found myself glancing way too many times at the bandaged hand of Lola Beaumont who sat quietly beside me, her eyes staring out at the view that rushed past us as I wheezed my way through the traffic.

It was a marriage of convenience and I needed it as much as the grande dame of the French society.

One year, I had decided. All I needed was one year of her time, her mother's power and influence and we both could be rid of each other.

She didn't appear too fazed at my suggestion of dislike over this union, already confirming my suspicions that she detested it as much as me. It would make things easier.

I hadn't anticipated my methods to turn so drastic but it was the only way I could pull everything off easily without having to come under radar. I needed to do this, especially for my maman.

I still remember the day, the bitter taste of it fresh on the tip of my tongue. I had just returned home from school, it was a Friday meaning I would pack my bags and head over to the nursing home to stay the weekend with maman.

Maman was sick and being shunned by everyone but the men in your house didn't really help uplift her much. Knowing she spent her last minutes in remorse and loathing always tugged something deep within me.

Just minutes after I had arrived I was joined by my father on the steps of the nursing home, he was clad head to toe in black, an umbrella held over his head by one of our butlers as rain poured down heavily over us from heaven as if tears of maman wanted to accompany us all the way till the casket she had lain.

I remember being eleven and unable to grasp the severity of the situation, sometimes even wondered how I was so blinded by emotions that I was ready to jump in after her and haul her back to the world of living with me.

My younger brother was fast asleep on that day, being down with the flu that had been going around.

I remember being so short that my father could easily fit in within his arms, as I had shrunken into his grasp. My eyes following a procession and unable to remember how exactly it took place.