Eternally Yours by Patrice Caldwell

Author:Patrice Caldwell [Caldwell, Patrice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The morning was sunny, almost summery. The light glazed Kacey’s bed as though it were a cake. She stretched, happy before she could remember why she was happy, and that it was the first time in a while since she had felt this way. Then she remembered: the moon on the pond, the kiss, how Amara had kissed her back, touched her with cold hands that made her shiver with pleasure. Then Amara pulled away and said, fear in her voice, “We shouldn’t.”

Of course they shouldn’t. Kacey was married. But she was eighteen. She was young and had made a mistake. What if she had lived in a time when divorce wasn’t an option? It was, though. Maybe even an annulment? The marriage had never been consummated. And they had been married for only a couple months. How had she made this decision? How had she let everyone else’s opinions take the place of her own? “Don’t worry,” Kacey told Amara. “I’ll take care of everything.” Amara had looked worried but said nothing to dissuade her, not even during their silent walk to the barn, where they parted ways.

Kacey pushed back the linen sheets. She would google a divorce lawyer. She would call one today. A knock came at the door, and she startled, pulse jumping. It was not, however, her husband, but a maid, bringing Kacey’s usual breakfast: coffee and yogurt with fruit and granola and a side of bacon. A dahlia nodded at Kacey from an opalescent bud vase on the tray. When the maid left, Kacey lifted her coffee cup but couldn’t drink. She lifted her spoon but couldn’t eat. She stared at the out-of-season dahlia’s pink face, and a creepy feeling stole over her. She snatched the flower from the vase and threw it to the floor. It was not normal that she should fear her husband, even when he had done nothing wrong or cruel. It was not normal that she should feel spied upon by flowers and a diamond. It was not normal that she couldn’t recall the faces of anyone who worked here, except that of Amara, who also was afraid of Kacey’s husband.

Something was wrong with him, but what?

Kacey remembered his studio.

Maybe she could just peek. He wouldn’t know, would he? It wasn’t like he had locked the door. It could be that he even wanted her to enter, or at least he didn’t care enough about his privacy to secure it. And if she found something in the studio that she shouldn’t—What? Proof of embezzlement? Was he rich because he had stolen money?—maybe she could use the information to make him let her go.

Stay away from it, Amara had said about the studio. I say this for your own good.

But what about Amara’s good? She had said she couldn’t quit working for Kacey’s husband. Amara had a slight accent that suggested this wasn’t her country of origin. She had mentioned a homeland. Was she an immigrant, and was Kacey’s

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