Page 38 of Dull
“I loved her as well.She and my grandad had a lot of patience with me.”
“Do you remember anything from before your final walk with your sister?”he asked.
Clarissa shook her head.“No, I don’t.I know that night Isabella had been told she was going to be married to you.”
He nodded and then she saw him frown.“In June?”
Clarissa frowned.“No, in November.”
“But I was aware of the marriage in June,” Lorenzo said.“That was when I was told.”
“What does that mean?”she asked.
“Five months’ difference.”
Clarissa stared down at her husband.“Okay, I feel like that is supposed to mean something but I don’t know what it means.”
“Did your sister ever talk about another engagement?”he asked.
She sighed.“It’s kind of hard to think about this stuff, when we’re like this.”
He smiled and rubbed at both her sides.“You’re right.”
She saw it was important to him.“She did mention that I was going to have to get used to it, because there would be a guy out there for me.She wasn’t going to be the only one who was married off.”She shrugged.“It’s no different than what happened.But I get the feeling you’re thinking of something else.”
“It might be a long shot.”
“Okay, what is the long shot?”
“What if there were two arranged marriages?”he asked.
“I wouldn’t know if there were.After Isabella’s death, it’s all kind of a blur, and I only know I was told I had to take her place.You’re serious, though, aren’t you?”
“You said yourself someone was coming to kill you.”
“The backup?”she asked, and he tightened his arms around her.“You don’t have to get nervous.I heard my parents call me that so many times.Even my brothers would call me the backup.”
“But even a backup would need to be married off.”
“So, you think my parents had intended for me to ...I don’t know, marry someone else?”
“It’s an option, and let’s not talk about it now.”
“I’d like not to talk about it.It was scary, Lorenzo.One of the scariest moments of my life.”
“You’ve never opened up about that day,” he said.
“With you.Sometimes with Grandma, not a lot, though.It happened so fast and yet, at times, I think it was slow enough I could have stopped her from doing it.”She licked her lips.“What was she thinking?”
“I didn’t know her, but you said yourself, you two were friends.I imagine she was doing everything she could to save her sister.Her best friend.”
Tears filled Clarissa’s eyes, only this time she didn’t swat them away.
“I couldn’t stop the bleeding.She didn’t have long.Just enough to tell me I was going to have to take her place.”She let out a breath.“This is so hard.”
He took hold of her hands.He was still inside her, and she felt him all around her.
“I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” Lorenzo said.“You’re safe.I’ve got you.You’re completely, one hundred percent safe.”
