“I don’t know, but I’m sure I could think of something.” Winnie scoffed.
Flora looked around and cleared her throat. “Look, he wasn’t the one with the powerful family, alright? We were. He was marrying in.”
“Were vows exchanged?” King smirked.
Flora exhaled deeply. “No. We were on our way to the room when he heard his sister screaming and came back out.”
“So my brother killed a civilian with no immunity in place?” King scoffed. “Have a good night, ladies, and I genuinely am sorry for your loss. You’re a pretty girl though. I’m sure your family can easily find you another husband.”
King turned around and started to walk toward the door. I let Xavia and Knight trail directly behind him and waited for Rook to come along too.
“Wait!” Winnie’s voice came out firm and demanding, like she was the one in charge of us, and we all stopped in place. “You have to hear me out. You killed my fiancé on our wedding day at our wedding party. It’s the least you could do.”
Rook was the first one to turn back around to face her and he sighed.
“We can talk in our seating area,” Flora offered. “Come on.”
The rest of us slowly turned around and she led us to a little room that looked like a library. King and Xavia sat together across from Flora and Winnie. Rook sat on the couch between them. I stood behind my twin’s seat while Knight stood behind King and Xavia’s.
“You don’t want to take a seat?” Flora looked from Knight to me and back.
“Nah,” Knight grumbled.
“No. Thank you,” I said politely. I didn’t know these people and I wasn’t about to give them too much of an upper hand.
“Okay,” Flora exhaled. “So?—”
Winnie cut her sister off. “My marriage was a business deal.”
“Most of them are,” Knight deadpanned.
“Yeah, well mine had a deadline.”
“How old are you?” King asked.
“Twenty-three as of tonight.”
“I married my wife when she was twenty-four,” Knight offered. “You don’t stop being marriage ready at twenty-three. Hell. You never really stop being ready and even though theysay that prime marriage age for women is between eighteen and twenty-one, there are a lot of perfect marriages made outside of that.” Knight paused. “Oh, and happy birthday.”
“Thanks.” Winnie snipped and took a deep breath to center herself before continuing. “Look, you don’t understand. I’m not saying that I need to be married now because I’m worried I won’t find a husband to take me. I could care less about that. It’s just…”
“If she wants to come into her portion of our inheritance she needs to be married by twenty-three and stay married for two years minimum.” Flora shifted where she was sitting.
“So tonight was your last chance at making the cut?”
“Yep.” Winnie exhaled.
“What does this inheritance look like?” King leaned back in his seat and threw his arm behind the couch.
Flora climbed up, made her way to the bookshelf, grabbed a book, opened it, collected a piece of paper and walked it over to King who unfolded it and read it quietly. He whistled then passed it to Knight.
“We can probably split it four ways and cover it.”
“Why would we do that?” Knight asked seriously and passed the paper down to Xavia. “Her fiancé took shit there knowing what was at stake and I have two babies on the way. I can’t just throw that kind of money out because some woman we’ve met once didn’t pick a husband who could stay alive for two years and a day.”
“You were ready to go to war after meeting Casmi once.”
“Casmi needed help. This woman is comfortably settled in a family home with the ability to choose a husband of her own. She doesn’t need saving and nobody broke any laws.”
