“You’re going to look beautiful in whatever you wear.”
There was something up with Draven.I frowned and turned to him.
It was strange that in a matter of months, I’d gone from being nervous around him to familiar.I closed the distance between us and took his hand.“What’s wrong?”I asked.“Are you getting cold feet?”I couldn’t help but smile.
He could be getting cold feet.
“I’m going to marry you, Maeve.I don’t get cold feet.”
“Then what is wrong?”I asked.
He stared at me for a second, and it was starting to make me a little nervous.The intense way he looked at me made me think he had some bad news to share.
“You can tell me anything,” I said.
From the moment I found out I was going to be sold, I’d been terrified.I did everything I could do to get out of it, but nothing was good enough.It didn’t matter what I did.My fate was sealed.
There was nothing Draven could tell me that was going to shock me, unless he didn’t want to be married.That might hurt a lot more than I cared to admit.
“Sit,” Draven said.
It was bad enough he needed me to sit down, now I was nervous.I tried not to be.
Licking my suddenly dry lips, I took a seat and looked at him.Silence.This was not feeling good.I felt that tightening in my stomach, nerves working their way up my spine.
We were choosing a wedding dress.Draven already had a tuxedo, and he’d told me he was in the process of arranging everything for our wedding.Was he getting cold feet?No, I just had to wait and see what he had to say.
Draven was still silent and kept staring at me.
I waited.
What should I say to convince him he could tell me anything?
“You’re making me kind of nervous here,” I said.
He took hold of my hands and kissed my knuckles.“I don’t know how you’re going to feel about what I’m about to tell you.”
I smiled.“So long as you’re not selling me, and you know, dumping me, I think we’re going to be okay.”
“Have you ever looked at your family and felt like you didn’t quite belong?”he asked.
This was not the question I expected, and I wasn’t sure where he was leading, so I frowned.
“Well, I guess ...why?”
Draven pulled out his cell phone and moved in closer to me.On his cell phone was a picture of me.I hadn’t even known he had taken it.I was smiling at him, as I recalled the day he took this.I’d been quite happy.Next, he flicked to a picture of my family, and I couldn’t help but admit I truly couldn’t see any resemblance.
“What’s going on, Draven?”
“I did some digging, and twenty-one years ago, a young couple entered a hospital—the same hospital as your mother—only their child apparently didn’t make it.All the notes suggest this was a perfectly healthy baby.When she was born, she gave out a hearty cry, and to these parents, there was nothing wrong with their baby.Overnight, as the woman slept, she said she felt groggy.A distant memory of a little girl screaming, and she doesn’t remember anything else.When she woke up, her husband was there, the baby was gone, and the doctors said they had done everything they could.”
“Draven, why are you telling me this?”I asked.
“You said that at no point were you ever allowed to be part of the family.There are three brothers older than you, and I believe twenty-one years ago, your parents lost hope.So, they blackmailed a doctor into stealing a baby,” Draven said.“My theory is right.”
“What?”
“You’re not a Taylor, Maeve.”He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a folded sheet of paper, and handed it to me.
