Chapter 3

I packed everything connected to Melville into a bag and threw it in the dumpster. I was leaving with my suitcase when I ran straight into them.

Cecilia teased Melville. "Your little sweetheart sure has a temper."

Two or three people in the group snickered.

Melville's face darkened. "Serafina, don't keep testing my limits."

Cecilia lifted her chin. "Let me teach her some manners for you."

She raised her hand to slap me, but I twisted her arm behind her back and pinned her.

Cecilia cried out in pain and started shrieking. "How dare you lay a hand on me? The Ferguson family will make you pay for this!"

I couldn't have cared less. "Anytime."

Suddenly, someone yanked me backward by the shoulder so hard that I gasped in pain.

It was Melville. He pulled Cecilia behind him, disappointment written all over his face. "Serafina, how can you expect to marry into the Taylor family if this is how you act?"

I forced myself upright through the pain. "Melville, I wouldn't be your wife if you paid me!"

Watching him protect someone else while hurting me again, I finally understood. Maybe he did like me, but when it mattered, he would always protect whoever could benefit him more.

I turned to go, but Melville grabbed my wrist hard. His hand trembled slightly. "Where are you going?"

I yanked my arm free. "Let go of me, you filthy piece of trash!"

The last trace of color drained from his face. He quickly pulled off the pendant he wore against his skin. "Serafina, stop this. I'm cashing in the promise. You have to stay. Be good. All my friends are here, so don't embarrass me!"

For a second, I was somewhere else.

A traitor had left me with a leg injury that never fully healed. It ached every time it rained.

It had hurt Melville to see me in pain, so he'd secretly signed up for a drug trial with a pharmaceutical company and used the money to take me to a doctor.

His devotion moved me so much that I solemnly gave him the pendant engraved with my family's crest. "This is a promise. No matter what you do wrong or what you ask of me, you can trade this for one chance."

But of course a pampered Taylor would never actually be a lab rat. It had all been for show.

And I'd thought he'd use the pendant to propose. I never thought he'd waste his one chance just to save face.

I shook my head. "Melville, I don't honor promises I was tricked into."

A whistling sound split the quiet of the little town.

While I was distracted, a gleaming bolt shot straight at me and buried itself in my chest.

Pain exploded from the wound. Bright red blood soaked through my clothes and dripped into the snow, leaving dark red spots.

Cecilia didn't seem to have expected that either. Her grip on the crossbow went slack, the smugness drained from her face, and she took two dazed steps back.

My strength gave out, and I staggered backward.

"Serafina!" Melville lunged forward and caught me as I went limp.

"Doctor! Get a doctor!"

He held me tight and pressed down hard on the wound with shaking hands, but the blood kept welling up between his fingers until his hands and cuffs were red. "Stay awake, Serafina."

He turned to Cecilia, his voice ice-cold. "You hurt my fiancée. The Ferguson family will answer for this!

"If anything happens to Serafina, I'll make you pay."

Cecilia protested loudly. "I only meant to scare her into stopping! Somebody bumped me. That's why my aim was off!"

Through the dizziness, I heard Melville beg over and over. "God! Please don't do this to me. I can't lose Serafina!"

I felt warm tears falling on my face.