NICHOLAS
My footsteps echoed down the marbled hallway, my mind was in a haze, thinking of a thousand different ways things could get worse than they already were. I’d just thrown down the gauntlet… in front of families who’d kill over much less. I’d claimed her. Emily. A Castillo. In front of her family and every watching vulture tucked into the shadows of that goddamn ballroom.
There was no going back now.
The air shifted as I rounded the corner and spotted Robert ahead of me, standing alone near one of the side exits, hands folded calmly in front of him like he hadn’t just watched me start a war with a smile on my face.
Too calm.
“That stunt,” he said when I was a few paces away, “I hope… for both our sakes, that was just for theatrics.”
I didn’t slow down. I stopped just a few st
