Chapter Two

Prince Marcus Walker, her future husband and her father’s latest business partner, someone who could ensure more fortunes for generations to come, should have been a dream come true. He seemed to have everything a woman should want in a man. He was handsome, wealthy, charming. Oh, so very charming. …But for some reason he wasn’t what she wanted….and truth be told, she didn’t even know what she wanted.

Maybe he was even too charming… Bonnie thought and frowned…in an annoying kind of way.

Prince Marcus had turned his attention on Bonnie the instant he’d seen her at her father’s birthday a year ago. Marcus had been exciting and different…but he wasn’t to her, and she didn’t quite understand why most of the ladies had their heads spinning over him. Maybe she was just different , but given his interest, her father had probably been thrilled and most definitely been charmed by him.

Right now, she was neck-deep in sleepless grief over having lost her grandmother, Bella Rimmer who had been one of the parental figures she had had growing up, and she hated that she was going through this without her.

Bella Rimmer, teenage bride, WWII factory worker, former CEO of Rimmer International, mother of four sons, only two of whom had lived past childhood, would have moved heaven and earth for Bonnie;

Had moved it, in some respects. Before Bella’s death, Bonnie was sure that father never would have considered pushing her into marriage, let alone into one that would solidify his business connections. Her grandmother never would have allowed it unless she was convinced it was what Bonnie wanted. But what she didn’t understand was how her father, Bella’s own son had had an arranged marriage too. Maybe she just assumed wrong…or maybe her grandmother had changed over the years.

She had thought that she could do this. ..to do her duty. At least she had thought so until fifteen minutes ago, when she’d looked at herself in the mirror.

And didn’t see a trace of herself. This wasn’t her. This was not what she wanted.

“I need help, Grams.” She said, The whispered plea echoed in the empty room, against the brocade curtains, the striped gold wallpaper and the silver tray that housed a champagne bucket and glasses. The one-of-a-kind designer gown felt like a strait jacket despite the strapless corset top. The sweeping, elegant tulle skirt with satin lining brushed against the floor. Embroidery, beads, rhinestones and appliqué added intricate patterns of perfection any bride would be thrilled with. Yet all Bonnie could hear, even above the lapping waves of the marina and the cries of seagulls, was her panicked breathing and the voice screaming in her head that something wasn’t right. That she was making a very horrible decision. Maybe an irreversible mistake.

She gripped her skirt in her fists and moved to the French doors overlooking the marina. The ocean. Peace instantly settled over her; the water always had provided solace. It had been her grandmother’s coping mechanism, as well, one Bella had embraced fully a few years before when she’d purchased a cozy home on the beach less than ten miles from where Bonnie currently stood—a house Bonnie was poised to inherit now that Bella had died.

“What are you doing?” Faith, her cousin and maid of honor, rushed into the room. Her expression was frantic, her long blond locks solidified with enough hair product to supply a salon. “Let go of your dress! It’s getting wrinkled and you know that everything has to be perfect. You have pictures in less than fifteen minutes.” She slapped at Bonnie’s hands, kneeled down and smoothed the expensive material.

“There. It’s okay.” Faith let out a long, relieved breath. “I don’t think we need to steam it again.”

“I can’t do this.” The words were barely a whisper. Bonnie cleared her throat. “I can’t marry Prince Marcus.”

“Don’t be silly—of course you can.” Faith stood and flipped a curl behind Bonnie’s shoulder. “Prince Marcus is a woman’s dream come true…every womans dream come true. What you are feeling right now is just last-minute jitters.”

But Bonnie also noticed that Faith didn’t meet her gaze. If anything, she seemed to be purposely avoiding it.

“I don’t love him. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know him.” Not the real him, Bonnie thought. Oh, he was a pretty enough picture and well established in the financial world, and oh, he was a prince too. Everyone seemed to keep reminding her about that, but what were his dreams? His ambitions? And he’d never asked about her dreams, her plans. Her…

“What’s to know?” Faith asked. “He’s crazy about you and he can pay for and provide you with anything you could ever want or need.” Faith turned critical, almost accusing eyes on her.

Bonnie swallowed hard. She saw it, a moment before Faith covered it, but it was there. A momentary flash of envy.

“I don’t need him to give me anything. I already have everything I need”

Faith wasn’t listening. “Nonsense. Now.” She nodded. “Let’s head downstairs. Marcus and his groomsmen are finishing up with the photographer. We’re up next.”

The roar in Bonnie’s ears intensified as Faith pushed the bouquet of red and white roses into her hands. She followed her cousin out of the room to the winding staircase and thought this had to be what an out-of-body experience felt like.

“Now you get yourself together. I’m going to go get the others,” Faith told her. Referring to Bonnie’s bridesmaids, she said, “Hope they are ready”.

Faith took Bonnie’s arms and planted her in an alcove at the bottom of the stairs. She fluffed up the veil a bit, tsked a few times, then smiled. “Don’t move. We’ll all be right back.”

Like she had a choice, Bonnie thought.

Faith disappeared in a flash of bloodred, a fitting color for the attendants’ A-line gowns, Bonnie thought against the giggle of hysteria that bubbled up. This was it. The first day of the rest of her life. Married to a successful man, a man whose parties and appearances and professional successes would soon be hers, while her own dreams… Every ounce of warmth drained out of Bonnie’s body. Her own dreams, whatever they were, would wither and die, forever unrealized and unachieved, because she’d been talked into fulfilling the request her father had made of her.