Venom and Vows

~VALERIE'S POV~

The cleaning rag shook in my hands as I stood frozen in the marble hallway, my mind a tempest of Donovan's promises from the night before.

His voice echoed in my memory….raw, desperate, certain…as he'd spoken of marriage, of forever, of making me his wife despite a world chosen to tear us apart.

"I'm going to marry you, Valerie Hayes, and no one…not my mother, not society, not God