Page 128 of Vow to Claim You

My heart lurches.

“He looked at me like—” She swallows. “Like I was something he’d already purchased. Father introduced him as my future husband.”

No.

The word screams through my head. No, no, no.

I married Aric to prevent this. I signed that contract, bound myself to a stranger, left my home and my country and everything I knew—all so Naomi would be free. All because Father promised she would be free.

“I refused.” Naomi’s chin lifts, a flash of the Almaviri stubbornness we share. “I told Father I wouldn’t do it. He said I didn’t have a choice. He said—” Her voice breaks and she takes a deep breath before she continues. “He said what happened to you was proof that daughters do as they’re told.”

The rage that moves through me is white-hot. Incandescent.

What happened to me.

Like my marriage was a lesson. A warning. A demonstration of what becomes of women who think they have a choice.

I gave up everything so this exact moment would never find her. I walked down that aisle so she would never have to. And he took that—took my surrender, the hardest thing I have ever done to myself—and sharpened it into a blade to hold against her throat. My obedience turned into her cage.

“How did you get out?” My voice sounds strange to my own ears—too calm and controlled considering the rage flowing through me.

“The bodyguard.” Naomi sniffs. “Hassan. He’s been with us since I was twelve. He came to my room that night and told me I had to leave. Said he’d arranged transport to Norway. Documents, everything. Said someone had paid him to protect me if things went wrong.”

Slowly, I turn to look at Aric. He meets my gaze. “You,” I breathe, pieces clicking into place.

He doesn’t deny it. He doesn’t confirm it either—just holds my stare with that infuriating calm, that perfect control, that face that gives nothing away unless he chooses to let it.

“When we were in Monsera,” I say slowly. “For Luca’s funeral. You met with someone.”

“I met with several people.”

“You met with Hassan. You paid him.” My brows knit together. “You paid my sister’s bodyguard to help her escape if our father broke his word.”

“I made arrangements.”

“Why?” The question comes out raw. “Why would you do that? You barely knew me then. You didn’t—we weren’t⁠—”

“I didn’t trust Leandro,” he replies. “I saw the way he looked at you in Monsera. The way he spoke about the arrangement. The way he treated the contract like a transaction and you like currency.” Aric leans back in his chair, resting his jaw against his knuckles as his expression hardens. “I had a feeling he wouldn’t keep his word about Naomi.”

“So you just… planned for it. Without telling me.”

“Because it mattered to you. Naomi. Her safety. Her freedom. I could see it every time you spoke about her, every time her name came up. She was the reason you agreed to this marriage in the first place.” His eyes flick between mine for a moment. “And I wasn’t going to let your sacrifice be for nothing.”

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to feel.

He paid a bodyguard to watch over my sister without saying a word. Without taking credit. Without using it to make me grateful or indebted or anything else.

He just… did it. Because it mattered to me.

Naomi is watching us with wide eyes, her gaze bouncing between Aric and me like she’s trying to solve a puzzle.

“Thank you,” she murmurs to Aric. “You don’t even know me, and you helped me.”

His expression doesn’t change.

“You’re Ayanna’s sister. That makes you family.”

Family.