Second Chance Vows novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Dare
On his 22nd birthday Perry answers a cruel dare by fastening the family bracelet on a blind girl and walking out; his father says the Kendricks' notary is already in the office.
Everyone laughed when Trent pulled a blind girl into my birthday dinner and told me she was my bride.
I did not laugh.
I had been here before, and I knew every line that was coming.
I was twenty-two today, and for the second time I was sitting in the private room of the best restaurant in town with a gold bracelet in my pocket.
I had died once already, and I remembered it.
Trent held the girl by the elbow in the middle of the room.
She had stopped in the doorway the moment he let go of her, and then she had stepped over the raised threshold on her own.
Her cream sweater was too thin for the weather, and her eyes did not settle on anything.
"She was lost in the hallway, so I said I'd find her a seat," Trent said. "Perry, you've been so lonely. Look, I brought you a bride."
Trent laughed first, and she turned her face toward him before he had finished.
The table laughed after him.
Tiffany Kendrick sat at my right hand with her chin on her fist.
She had been my friend since we were seven, and she had been engaged to me on paper since we were twenty.
"Go on, Perry," she said. "Marry her. It would be the funniest thing you ever did."
In my first life, I had shouted at her for that joke, and she had walked out with Trent.
A month later her father tore up the deal with my father's company.
Six months after that my father robbed a corner store to pay a debt and went to prison, and I drove into a bridge.
This time I stood up.
"All right," I said.
Tiffany stopped smiling. "What did you say?"
"I said I'll marry her."
Nobody laughed now.
Trent tried to bring it back. "Come on, bro. You don't have to throw your life away because Tiffany teased you."
I looked at him and remembered how he had smiled the day my father's company went under.
I walked to the girl and held out my hand, palm up, where she could feel it brush hers.
"Do you want to leave with me?" I asked.
She waited a moment, and then her fingers closed around mine.
Tiffany stood up so fast her chair went over.
"Perry, you know the rule. You can't just leave."
She pointed to the bottle in the center of the table, tied with a red ribbon.
"Trent brewed that wine for your birthday himself. Drink one glass in front of everyone, and I'll forget this whole stupid thing."
Everyone at the table knew I was allergic to alcohol.
One sip closed my throat and swelled my lips shut, and the last time I had been talked into it I had spent three days in a hospital bed.
Trent knew that better than anyone.
He watched me with a patient little smile.
"You're insane," I said, and I walked past Tiffany and pushed the door open with my shoulder.
"Perry!" Her voice cracked behind me. "If you've got the guts, marry her for real!"
I did not look back.
At the top of the steps I stopped and took the bracelet out of my pocket.
It was thin gold links with a green stone, and it had been my mother's mother's, and her mother's before that.
The Fairchild rule was older than the company.
On a son's twenty-second birthday, the woman he fastened it on first would be his wife.
Tiffany had waited her whole life for me to fasten it on her.
In the first life I never had.
I took the blind girl's wrist and slid the bracelet over her hand, and I closed the clasp.
"What is that?" she asked. Her voice was low and calm.
"My family's promise," I said. "I'm sorry I'm making it for you in a hurry."
Through the glass door behind us, I saw Tiffany's face go white.
Trent had seen it too, and his smile was gone.
My assistant had the car at the curb, and I helped her into the back seat.
She told me her name was Cosima Kingsford, and that she had lost her sight in an accident three months ago.
Kingsford.
In Riverton City, the Kingsfords owned the bank, the port and half of every street.
It was a common enough name, and this girl was alone in a cheap sweater with nobody beside her.
I looked at her face and felt sorry for her.
"I'm Perry Fairchild," I said. "I'm sorry I pulled you into that."
"You didn't pull me in," Cosima said. "Your cousin did."
"I can pay for the best eye doctors in the country," I said. "I need a wife, and I need one this week. If you're willing, nod."
She nodded.
It was not gallant, and it was not romantic, and I was not going to pretend it was.
I needed a wife, or I would spend the next year dodging Tiffany.
"Then we'll find you a dress today, Miss Kingsford," I said, and she turned her face toward the window.
The car pulled into traffic, and I called my father.
It rang a long time before he picked up.
"Perry," he said. His voice was thin and tired. "Where are you? Tiffany's father is sitting in my office with a notary and a contract, and he says you promised to sign."
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