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RENEE’S POV
Living in the penthouse suite was a dream every girl in New York had, and my home was always the most enviable of all. With a great view of the Empire State Building in an ocean of sky scrapers from our giant windows inside, but even better from the patio outside. My friends at my very exclusive posh private high school always wanted to visit me over anyone else. Or maybe it was because of my name. Renee Vaughn meant something here. Vaughn meant oil tycoon and billionaire. Always in the public eye, featured in the society pages. I kind of liked it at the time because it made me popular in high school, which was a time in my life I might have found very challenging otherwise. Now, at twenty-seven years old, I was well and truly over it. I wanted a normal life and a normal family. I would have much rather been anywhere but here.
A quiet beach. Now that would be a dream come true. Cocktail in hand, a small beach house facing the ocean, peace and quiet so I could just paint. Painting without the weight of family expectations pressing down on me would be a dream come true, and if I wasn’t Vince Vaughn’s youngest child and only daughter, I might have been able to do it. But that wasn’t possible. My father had a path carved out for me, and that was a path I had to follow. Whether I wanted to or not.
“What do you think, Renee?” my father asked me, snapping me from my fantasy world. I couldn’t even daydream that I was painting and creating on a beach, without a care in the world, because my family needed me right here. On the patio of our Manhattan penthouse suite, we were sharing lunch with Diego Vanderbilt’s family. A family I was definitely expected to impress. “Don’t you think it’s going to be a wonderful business move for us to merge? It is going to be positive for everyone.”
I didn’t even need to look at my father to know his eyes were burning through my head. He had an answer that he expected me to give, and nothing else would be good enough. I took myself away from all my fantasies and became the good little Southern girl I was always expected to be. Even if I hadn’t lived in the South for most of my life, it didn’t change the way I was expected to present myself to the rest of the world.
“Oh, yes, of course.” I brushed my fingers along my pearl necklace while smiling, showing my teeth. “I think it will be wonderful.”
What my father wasn’t saying, what none of us were saying, but what remained like the elephant in the room regardless, was the fact that this business merger rested entirely on me and my decision to marry Diego. Something I really wished I could refuse because Diego was a well-known womanizer with an arrogant attitude that made my skin crawl. But I couldn’t refuse, because the last time I did my own thing, it did not end well. In fact, it ended up with my heart shattered into a million pieces. I barely liked to even think about it anymore, but it had been brought up a lot recently. My father liked to remind me that he told me so, and that he knew my unapproved college boyfriend wasn’t going to be good enough for me. He often said he could have predicted that I would end up cheated on and heartbroken, so of course I needed to let him pick who I ended up married to. And he’d picked Diego Vanderbilt, who I really didn’t think would end up treating me well, but would be a good union for my father’s business. After all, it was my inheritance, and wasn’t a marriage just a business arrangement anyway?
My heart sunk every time I thought about it, but I had agreed to it now, so there was no backing out. It was what it was. Everything was too far gone.
Luckily, the conversation continued to spin around me without me needing to join in any longer. I had contributed what I could to the business conversation, so I was done. I could return to trying to enjoy the midday sun while slowly pushing food around on my plate. I didn’t have the good mood or appetite of everyone else. Maybe it was because I knew the painting daydream was slipping further away from me by the minute. It was already out of reach. As a wife to a Vanderbilt, everything was going to be different. I would be expected to behave in a certain way, to be seen at all the right events, to be the trophy wife on his arm in public while he likely had mistresses all over the world. That wasn’t a life I was looking forward to, but again, as I had to keep reminding myself, it was too late now.
With a bit of luck, he will be gone a lot,I reminded myself in what was supposed to be a pep talk. Then I can paint while I am alone. I can do what’s expected of me, and paint the rest of the time. Just for myself.
That had worked for a while. It had assisted me in getting through a lot of the initial stress which came from my non-conventional proposal, but the closer we got to the actual wedding and the commitment which was going to change the rest of my life, the harder it became to convince myself that I was going to be able to find a slice of happiness in the hell that was going to be my life from here on out.
All of a sudden, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I could sense a set of eyes focusing on me in an extremely uncomfortable manner. Much as I didn’t want to give whoever it was the satisfaction, I couldn’t stop myself from looking up to meet the gaze upon me. As soon as I saw who it was, my heart stopped beating and my mouth ran dry. Victoria Vanderbilt, Diego’s mother. She had her head cocked to one side and was examining me like I was an animal in the zoo. I didn’t like it one bit. I tried darting my eyes around to see if anyone else was looking at me, but no, it was just her. She was staring at me like she could see right in to my soul and the doubt about all of this sitting within me.
“Renee, would you mind helping me take these plates into the kitchen?” she asked me quietly, taking on the subservient role expected of the Vanderbilt women. Even though they had staff working for them, the women were still expected to serve their husbands. Something that was going to be my life sooner than later. “I think it might be nice if we get everyone another glass of wine, don’t you?”
Inwardly I sighed. This was the last thing I wanted to do, but I also knew that if I dared to disagree, it would cause a scene. Since I didn’t want any eyes upon me, it was easier to simply go with it. Even if I knew this wasn’t going to end well. There was a reason she wanted to get me alone, and it was always to remind me how lucky I was to be the woman chosen to marry her precious son. Victoria worshiped the ground Diego walked on. She thought he was the best thing in the world and could do no wrong. Yeah, she was definitely going to be the mother-in-law from hell. She was certainly going to be a problem. I didn’t stand a chance of getting on her good side, however nice I played. But I had to give it a chance.
“Of course.” I gave her my bright fake smile once more. “I am happy to help.”
With Victoria, we made our way around the table picking up plates. I tried to become almost like a member of staff, hoping to go unnoticed, but, unfortunately, I had done something to catch Diego’s attention. He was leering at me like I was something to eat. He even dragged his tongue along his bottom lip. A shudder raced down my spine, but I did my best not to let anyone else see it. Repulsion was not going to go over well with either of our families. To make sure I didn’t get caught by Diego again, I took the plates I already had and headed inside.
I set the plates on the kitchen counter, then grabbed it while I caught my breath. I hadn’t realized quite how breathless I was, how dizzy I was, until I was away from most of the people invited to lunch today.
“So, what’s going on?” Victoria’s voice was a little sharper as she spoke to me this time, not in front of everyone. “Why do you not look happy?”
“I am happy.” I gritted my teeth and smiled. “I am just thinking…about the wedding.”
Wedding. Victoria’s magic word. That woman could talk about the wedding for the rest of her life, as if she was the one who was getting married. It was ridiculous, but thankfully made her light up like a Christmas tree right now. She would easily forget that I looked unhappy.
“Oh, dear, I spent all of yesterday on the phone with the florist to make sure you get the exact flowers you want.” I didn’t even know what flowers she was talking about. I couldn’t remember ever expressing an interest in any particular flowers. Not that my opinion mattered. “And I have also been working hard to make sure the ice sculpture is delivered at the exact right time. The last thing we need is for a melted ice sculpture to ruin the big day.”
Ice sculpture?Really? Whatever. The marriage was to keep them happy, not me. I didn’t care what was going on.
“Are we wedding talking?” My mom joined the conversation, just as happy as Victoria. Sometimes I tried screaming at her silently with my eyes, hoping that our mother-daughter bond would overcome everything else, but it never did. I could only assume she was so caught up in wedding excitement that she couldn’t see anything else. I didn’t want to assume she would also rather think of the business than my happiness. “Because I wanted to talk to you, Victoria, about the wedding band.”