Since the dinner at The Mill, I’ve only had one opportunity to escape, and I took it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t expecting it to be a setup from Lucas and to be dragged right back to the farmhouse I’ve lived in the last few years. Now I’m standing under the harsh overhead lights of Belinda’s Bridal Boutique, half-zipped into a dress that feels like it’s going to rot my skin off. In this lighting, I don’t look like the exuberant bride I should be a few days before my wedding. In fact, it only highlights the splotchy makeup my mother smeared on me to hide the bruises Lucas and my father left on my arms and neck for trying to escape. I assume my mother, in all her infinite wisdom, decided it was best to cover them up so Matthew isn’t displeased that he didn’t get to ruin me first.

The fabric clings to me like it knows I don’t belong in it. The satin is too smooth. The bodice is too tight. The train is too long.

My reflection in the mirror doesn’t look like me. The girl there looks like a ghost. Same short blonde hair and big brown eyes. Pretty, I suppose, but vacant and dressed for sacrifice.

I press my palms to my stomach, trying to keep from unraveling. I told myself I’d just try it on while I waited for my next chance to escape. I’m here with my mother, but that doesn’t mean my father doesn’t have someone standing guard if I try to climb out a bathroom window. The second the zipper slid up my back, something inside me cracked.

I hate this. I fucking hate this and everyone involved.

The shop is quiet. My mother is in the back room where all the dresses are kept talking to Belinda, the owner of this place. She’s known as Castlebrook’s most aggressive matchmaker. Belinda does all the weddings in Castlebrook. If you’re getting married in this town, you go through her. It’s not tradition, it’s a power play. She knows what this is, and she’s fine with it as long as she gets paid to facilitate the wedding and reception.

And I’m standing here, half-swallowed by a dress I never wanted, preparing to become a bargaining chip in my father's latest deal. Belinda is full of bullshit. She knows it and she knows everyone else knows it, but that doesn’t stop her from spewing it everywhere. She told me I should feel so lucky to have a fiancé like Matthew. I wanted to claw her eyes out, but I just don’t have the strength to waste on someone like her now.

I don’t want someone who would take a bride as a brokered deal in order to merge two families.