Wicked Snow

Calling a Truce

The press was still outside when we left the restaurant, although there were far fewer of them because of the rain that was still falling from the sky. Kingsley held an umbrella over our heads and had me tucked in tightly to his side as we walked to the car. I had no idea where the umbrella came from, but the younger bodyguard had handed it to Kingsley before we exited the restaurant, and I was grateful for it as the heavy rain poured down around us. Of course, the poor bodyguards had no such comfort and were soaked by the time we made it to the car.

“You need to be more convincing at the wedding,” Kingsley told me as we settled inside the limo, not even waiting a second before giving me feedback on my apparently unsatisfactory performance. .

“I’ll try my very best, dear fiancé” I replied drily, annoyed with his constant criticism.

I looked toward the bodyguards sitting across from us, rolling my eyes to convey my annoyance to them. They both looked amused, but I could see they were trying to conceal their reaction because of their boss. I realized I should be more careful, when Kingsley narrowed his eyes at them in warning. The last thing I wanted was for them to get into trouble because of me.

“Do I need to remind you that you need me as much as I need you?” Kingsley said threateningly, grabbing my attention. “In fact, I would say you need me more,” he said with a cruel smile. “I could have any bride I want, but if you fail at this, your precious dream of art school will be over.”

“I’m surprised my father told you how he got me to agree to the marriage,” I said through gritted teeth. I would have thought my father would want to keep his blackmail under wraps.

“Who do you think helped him get your scholarship taken away?” Kingsley asked with a smirk, his dark brown eyes unsympathetic.

My head whipped around so fast my neck clicked. I stared at her future husband in shock. “What the f**k is wrong with you?” I shouted in anger. “Why would you do that?”

He infuriated me even more by shrugging as if what he had done didn’t matter. “I need a wife and I want to merge my company with your father’s,” he said simply. “You were the obvious choice and I needed to make sure you would go through with it.”

“Do you realize how messed up that is?” I asked him in disbelief. “You could have chosen someone who actually wanted to marry you, but instead you blackmailed me into it.”

“That’s just it, Grace,” he explained. “I didn’t want someone willing, because they would expect more out of marriage. I don’t want a real wife. I don’t want love. I just want to fix my reputation.”

I knew I shouldn’t bring up his deceased wife, but I couldn’t help myself. “You were happily married before, why can’t you have that again?” I asked softly, keeping anger out of my tone.

Kingsley’s whole body tensed up and his jaw ticked in fury. “Don’t ever speak about my wife,” he spat at her, his voice cold and terrifying. “Nobody will ever replace her.”

The air in the limo had become thick and heavy with tension, so I nodded my understanding instead of replying. I was thinking of apologizing, but when I met the gaze of the younger bodyguard, he shook his head slightly as if to warn me not to speak up again. Somehow, the drive from the restaurant was even more awkward and uncomfortable than the drive had been there.

I looked down at my lap for the rest of the drive, ashamed that I had brought up his dead wife, guilty I had brought up something painful for Kingsley, even if he was a jerk. It was clear that he loved his wife deeply and he still wasn’t over the loss of her, and I had been careless enough to poke at his wound. I knew I needed to be the bigger person and apologize. So, instead of letting the night end outside the door of my hotel room, I asked if he wanted to come inside for a minute, hoping his anger had cooled by then.

He looked reluctant to agree, but I convince him by saying, “It would look better to the press if you stayed for a bit.”

“You’re right,” he acknowledged with a heavy sigh and followed me into the room.

After his bodyguards walked through the bedroom and bathroom to check for who knows what, Kingsley told them to wait outside, which I was grateful for because I didn’t want an audience for what I had to say. I stood far across the room from the man I was meant to marry, my general distrust of men keeping me rooted as far from him as possible. I turned to Kingsley once the door had closed behind his bodyguards, taking a deep breath in to gain some courage.

“I’m sorry,” I started. “What I said was insensitive.”

He stared at me with narrowed eyes, as if he didn’t believe my apology. I didn’t blame him with the way we had been going at each other the whole evening.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked hesitantly, not sure how warm my reception would be.

“If you must,” he said with another sigh.

“Why do you need a wife? I know you’re trying to fix your image, but is a wife really necessary for that?” I had been wondering about it for the past week, and it just didn’t make much sense to me. There were easier ways to seem more respectable– the obvious one being that he could stop sleeping around and drinking, or at least be better at hiding it. Shaving his beard might also help, I thought pettily.

He ran a hand through his dark brown hair, looking reluctant to share any information with me, but he eventually answered the question. “I didn’t want to marry anyone, but my investors gave me an ultimatum,” he told her. “Either I fix my image quickly, or they pull their money from my company. Apparently, we’ve lost a lot of contracts recently, and they were concerned it was due to my unprofessional behavior. It was strongly implied that a wife would be the best way to go about it.”

His honesty was a pleasant surprise, and I appreciated that he was telling me the truth considering I was now involved in his mess.

“And you thought marrying a woman half your age, was the best way to convince them?” I asked with a light laugh. The whole thing was just rather absurd.

He shook his head and a small grin tugged at his lips. “No, but it’s much harder to find a woman my age who I can blackmail into marrying me,” he admitted bluntly.

My small smile disappeared at the reminder of why I was in that situation. “Yeah, I guess that would be hard to do. Look,” I said with a resigned sigh. “I don’t want the next two years to be any harder than they have to be, so could we just agree that we’ll keep things friendly from now on?” I asked hopefully.

At his sour expression, I clarified what I meant by saying, “I don’t mean we have to be friends,” to which he looked relieved. Honestly, I could never have been friends with someone like him, but I didn’t think it would be wise to say that to his face. “I just mean that when we have to spend time together, we both agree to keep things civil.”

“What exactly would that entail?” he asked suspiciously, seeming uncertain about my intentions.

“We spend as little time as possible with each other, and when we have to be together, we keep things cordial,” I explained. “Otherwise we’ll make each other’s lives hell until this is all over,” I pointed out.

If I had to live with him while we carried out the pretense, I really didn’t want to deal with him being an ass. So, even if it meant bargaining with the devil, I would happily do it to make sure I wouldn’t be miserable for the foreseeable future.

“So, you want a truce?” he asked with raised eyebrows.

I nodded. “Neither of us want this marriage to be real, so we’re on the same page. I just want to finish my art degree and then move on with my life once we get a divorce.”

“I see,” he said with some surprise.

“So, does that mean you agree?” I asked, my nerves making me twist my hands together.

“I agree,” he said with a firm nod, making me breathe out in relief.

“However,” he added severely. “If you ever bring my wife up again, or if you upset my daughter in any way, this deal is off,” he warned me.

I swallowed nervously, his serious tone making me feel apprehensive, but I agreed to his terms with my own added conditions. “Alright, but the same goes for you. If you mess things up for me at the School of Visual Arts, I’ll make sure our marriage looks like the sham it really is.”

“Fair enough,” he replied and surprised me with a genuine smile. “In that case, I’ll be off, but I’ll see you at the wedding.”

“Wait,” I shouted after him. “I umm… I’ve had a lawyer draw up a contract. I’ll uh…need you to sign it before the wedding,” I said awkwardly.

“Oh, yes your father did mention something about that. You can bring it to my office during the week and I’ll sign it there,” he said easily.

Then surprising the hell out of me, the man actually winked at me as he opened the door. It was such an abrupt change from the way he had been treating me earlier that I could only gape at him as he left my room. His positive reaction to my offer of peace seemed like a good sign, but it also seemed a bit too easy. More than that, it felt like I had sold my soul to the devil by creating a truce with Kingsley, but it seemed like the best option I had.

I had a week before I would be married to a man I could barely stand, and I knew our wedding would signal a huge change in my life. I hadn’t received much attention by being Frank Thornton’s daughter, but I knew that marrying Kingsley Hall would put me into the spotlight– in fact, just being his fiancé had thrown me into public speculation. My whole life was about to change, and I felt like I had no one I could rely on to help me through it.

Not for the first time, I wished I hadn’t isolated myself from others. Had I been more trusting and allowed myself to become closer to my peers, I might have had people in my life who I could turn to now that I needed support. I hadn’t even had anybody to call when I found out my mother died, which made me feel like the most pathetic person alive.

Deciding that I needed to change that, I called Sarah to take her up on her offer to stay with her family for Christmas. The holiday was in four days, and I had no plans to speak of. Her phone only rang twice before she picked up.

“Grace, I was just about to call you,” she said as she answered it.

“You were?” I asked with furrowed brows.

“Yes. I didn’t know your mom had passed,” she said softly and sadly. “I’m so sorry, Grace. I wanted to ask if you need anything.”

“I’m alright. I just need someone to talk to honestly,” I told her hesitantly.

“I just arrived in Manhattan, so we can meet up tomorrow morning if you’re up for it,” she suggested. “I can even meet you at your hotel, if you don’t feel like going out.”

“That would be great, Sarah. I could really use a friend right now,” I admitted, my voice cracking as tears formed in my eyes. I didn’t even know what had caused the tears, but I couldn’t stop them as they fell down my cheeks.

“Oh, Grace, I’m so sorry,” she said sympathetically. “If I had known, I would have come up sooner, so I could be with you,” she said sweetly.

“Thanks Sarah,” I said through the tears, wishing I had just told her the first time I called her about the contracts.

“My mom is calling me down for dinner, but we’ll go out for breakfast tomorrow and you can tell me all about it, okay?” she said gently.

“Yeah, okay,” I replied with a watery smile. “Have a good dinner.”

After promising to message me to make plans for the next morning, Sarah hung up to go eat with her family. I was honestly surprised that she had been so sweet to me when I had kept her at such a distance for so long. She had really come through when I had called about the contract, and then she was willing to drop everything to see me, without me even having to ask. I regretted not allowing us to be closer friends in the past, but I vowed that I would make more of an effort going forward.