The Vow I Never Took

Eleven

Lena's POV

I turned away from the pillar and headed back to my room. I needed my phone. I needed Grace. She’d know what to say, or at least make me laugh long enough to forget about the breakfast interrogation from hell.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and placed a call across to Grace. Just one ring and I couldn’t stop the words from flowing.

“ Mrs. Hale,” Grace called out, suppressing her giggles.

“ f**k that! These people are going to be the death of me,” I boomed, falling on the bed.

I heard her gasping, “ I knew it. They gave you poisoned tea, didn't they?”

I couldn't hold back my laughter at her insinuations. What poison?

“ Girl, your imagination is surely out of this world. Who poisons their son's wife?”

“ Oh…then it's worse, right? Girl, I could hop in my car right now and kidnap you before faking your death”

I sighed, the thought of Nathan Hales' furious face if he ever hears this was truly satisfying.

“ Tempting. Very tempting.”

“ You say the word and I will be outside with a wig, a trench coat, and a Getaway car!”

I had to hand it to Grace for her dramatic antidote, healing my craziness from breakfast earlier.

“ You're insane. I could use some insanity right now.”

“ Hanging out tonight? Just give me a beep. Gotta go before I get fired by my boss for calling during office hours!”

With a sigh, I cut the call off. “ I think I will need some buzz right now but damn the Hale family rules!”

Somehow, that brief exchange made me feel much better than anything else. It was relieving to know that Grace would always have my back.

I needed a break. Maybe walking around the mansion would help. If this place was as big as it looked, it had to have a library. Somewhere I could read a book, hide for a bit and pretend I was anywhere else.

I stepped into the hallway, trailing my fingers along the walls. I turned a corner and slowed down when I heard familiar voices. It was Grandmother Hale and Victoria.

I tiptoed toward the staircase and peeked through the opening in the wall. They were sitting in the parlour, facing each other and unaware I was just around the corner.

"She doesn’t deserve him," Victoria was saying. "She barely knows this family, and she definitely shouldn't be here."

I rolled my eyes. Of course, she was still talking about me. As if I wanted to be here either. I was the heiress of the Carter empire, for crying out loud!

"You’ve made your point, Victoria," Grandmother Hale replied. "But Nathan made his choice, and as long as that woman is under this roof, she will be treated with respect."

Victoria gave a little snort. "Mother, what do you mean by respect? She looks lost half the time."

After a pause, she added. "Seriously, I wonder how that girl is supposed to be the heiress of an empire. She is not cut out for this."

"Perhaps," Grandmother Hale said, "But you forget that I wasn't born into this life either. I was married to it. People thought I wasn't cut out for it either, until I married Wilbur Hale and I gave birth to Richard."

That shut Victoria up. She let out a "hmph!" and crossed her legs.

I quickly stepped back before they could notice me. My heart was thudding. Not just from being caught eavesdropping, but from what I’d just heard.

Grandmother Hale had defended me. Not gently or kindly, but she’d done it. In her own strict, ice-laced way.

Maybe she wasn’t the villain I thought she was. Maybe she was just a woman who expected the best and didn’t waste time with flattery.

I straightened up and kept walking. I wasn’t about to cry over a crumb of kindness, but I wasn’t made of stone either.

Now, time to find that library.

I wandered farther down the hallway, then past another hallway. Every part of this house felt like it had secrets. The deeper I went, the quieter everything got.

Then I saw a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. This door was different from the others. While the others were painted brown, this one was painted a creamy white. There wasn’t a label on it either, and something about that made it all the more intriguing.

I reached for the doorknob and gave it a jiggle. It was locked. Of course it was.

Still, something about the door made me curious. I knew I should walk away and pretend I never saw it. But when had I ever done what I was supposed to do?

I pulled a hairpin from the tiny pouch on the back of my phone case and crouched down. I wasn’t a professional at this or anything, but college taught me some things. Mostly from locking myself out of my own dorm room one too many times.

With a quiet click, the door gave way.

"Huh," I whispered, standing and easing it open.

The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t just a room but a narrow passage. The walls were lined with faded wallpaper and dim lighting. I stepped through carefully, closing the door behind me.

At the end of the passage was another door. I reached for the knob and twisted. It opened and led me straight into a library.

Tall shelves lined every wall, stacked with books from the floor to the ceiling. Dusty chandeliers dangled from above, but it was the old standing lamps that lit the room now.

There was a fireplace on one side. There was no fire in it, but it was clean, with a small tufted armchair nearby. Dark wood floors creaked under my feet. Everything smelled like ink and wax.

It was the kind of place where you could lose hours without meaning to.

I should have grabbed a book and left. But then I saw a desk in the corner, piled high with papers, folders and photographs. Like someone had been using it recently but left in a hurry.

The chaos made me step closer.

The photographs were the first thing I noticed. One showed a teenage Nathan on a golf course, mid-swing, half-smiling at the camera. Another picture had a middle-aged man, and it was signed "Richard Hale". This had to be the Richard that Grandmother Hale was talking about. This was Nathan's father.

The man was posing right in this same library, holding a glass of something expensive-looking and staring straight into the lens like he knew he looked good.

Then there was a photo of Richard Hale again, this time on a cruise ship, his arm around a woman I didn’t recognise. She looked warmer than Victoria, with a kind face and brown eyes. Definitely not the woman I’d met this morning. The picture was signed "Richard and Isabella Hale, 1995."

In another photo, Grandmother Hale stood beside Victoria, and a young, maybe ten-year-old Sebastian stood in front of them, looking like he was ready to bolt. There was no Nathan in that one.

I put the pieces together slowly. The woman on the cruise ship must have been Nathan’s mother. Which meant that Victoria wasn’t Nathan's mother. She was Sebastian’s.

Nathan and Sebastian were stepbrothers.

"Huh," I murmured.

I reached for the documents next, flipping them open carefully. I saw old estate files, deeds, testate agreements, contracts and old wills. So many wills. One document was marked with a red pen.

"Isabella Hale," I read out loud. Her name came up more than once. It was like every other page mentioned her.

In all the pictures lined on the table, Isabella Hale had appeared only once. But these documents made her seem important. More important than anyone else in the house.

"What is all this?" I whispered.

"What are you doing here?"

I screamed in fright and jumped up, then I turned slowly. Victoria Hale stood at the door, her eyes narrowed and cold as stone.

Oh, crap!