“Careful with the vases?—”
“That’s being delivered to the castle on the next truck.”
The words blurred together, but suddenly, my father was calling my name again. “Eliza! Where are you going?”
Damn good question.
I blinked rapidly when I realized that no one here would help me escape while he was right behind me. When I spun around to tell him to leave me alone, he was only a few steps away, his eyebrows still drawn in confusion, but irritation also now shimmered in his eyes.
“What was that about?” he demanded. “I heard shouting and now you’re ignoring me and causing a scene. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?” I echoed, disbelief lacing every word. “Are you serious?”
He sighed, glancing this way and that as if the answer would come speeding toward him from the street. “Of course, I’m serious. What on earth is this all about?”
“It’s about me finally standing up for myself,” I snapped. “Everyone else might be too polite or too self-absorbed to acknowledge how awful Winifred and Eugenie are, but I’ve had enough. I’m tired of being overlooked, dismissed, and laughedat, when in the meantime, we’d have lost everything by now if not for me.”
His features hardened slightly. “Watch your tone, young lady.”
“No, I don’t think I will,” I said, hugging the robe tighter around me as my head shook over and over again. “You’ve always overlooked me. Everything I do for this family never even gets me so much as a thank you. It only invites ridicule and criticism.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” I insisted. “The work I do at the castle, keeping it running, making it profitable, and turning it into something that actuallymatters in our community? Youbarely acknowledge it.”
His jaw started ticking. “That’s not?—”
“I did this forallof you,” I said over him, my voice breaking. “I agreed to this arrangement because it was whatyouwanted and what thefamilyneeded, and not one person has even said thank you. Bloody hell, I didn’t even need a thank you. Just a simplehow are you feeling about thiswould’ve been sufficient.” My chest was heaving in the aftermath, tears stinging my eyes. “I’m done, Father.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Done with what?”
“With all of it,” I said. “The wedding is off.”
His face fell, the color draining out of it completely. “You’re not serious.”
“I am,” I replied without hesitation. “I won’t be honoring my agreement to marry Jesse Westwood. You can tell the family that they’re free to set him up with another match.”
My father stared at me like he didn’t recognize the person standing in front of him, but I couldn’t blame him. I’d never, ever spoken to him in this tone of voice, nor had I ever stood up to him before.
“We need to talk about this, Eliza,” he murmured after a few long seconds. “It’s not as easy as?—”
“I don’t care if it’s easy or not. Frankly, I don’t even care if it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do. I’m not committing the rest of my life to a man I don’t know for a family who will not—and hasnever—appreciated me.”
Dad’s mouth opened, but before he could say anything, I was already turning away. I didn’t need him to try to convince me I was making a mistake. Maybe I was, but for once in my life, it wasmymistake to make.
“Eliza,” Miriam called just a second before I reached the gates. I paused at the sound of her voice. She caught up to me, her fingers closing gently around my wrist as she slipped a set of keys into my hand. “Go.”
“Thank you, Miriam.”
“Just go,” she repeated, her voice firm but quiet. “Go now, Eliza. While you still can.”
CHAPTER 45
WILL
If I was lucky, I could be touching down in London nine hours from now. That was the thought that kept me going as I parked at the private airstrip, my jet fueled up and ready to take me to her.
My family had always kept our jets here, but I’d never been more grateful for the place’s professional service. A driver was waiting to take my car, the plane’s engines already running.
