[Neither of them promised forever, yet it hurt all the same.]
River Hamilton cannot afford to fall for just anyone. To continue the legacy of her family the only way she can, she must eventually marry someone she may not want to spend the rest of he...
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R.HAMILTON
The instruction was clear and simple.
Background on the relationship between Dexter Hamilton and Ian Radcliffe.
River gave a couple of weeks to the private investigator to find out any information they could get their hands on, and it was the slowest two weeks of her life. Busy, but incredibly slow and torturous because even though she was not in the right state of mind when she came up with this plan, she was anxious to get answers.
Besides the obvious reasons for the agreement, realistically, there had to be more to this proposed marriage than River knew. It started to consume her and she felt she was going insane.
But then the information came in the morning of the Winter Ball and River didn't know what to do. If she read the file, she wouldn't be able to think of anything else for the entire day. So much had gone into the preparation for this ball and she wanted to enjoy herself. Harry was going to attend with her, and he'd be meeting her parents for the first time which already put plenty of pressure on both of them.
It ate at her, to not open the file and learn all she could about her father.
Patience was often said to be a virtue. River was great at it—for the most part. She had to exercise this more than she ever bothered before so she could get through the evening, which was new for her.
Although there was more rain than snow, River's excitement didn't falter. It grew gradually throughout the day as she prepared, and keeping Harry's nerves under control allowed her to feel calmer, too.
Since Harry insisted on working half a day, he was stuck in his office with his phone propped up on his desk while River used her laptop to stay on the video chat with him. She ran around her bedroom like a possessed animal, trying to find her favourite lipgloss while Harry sighed ten different ways to showcase not only his frustration with work but also the weight of his overthinking.
Eventually, River sat down on the cream sofa in her bedroom, pulled the bottle of champagne from the ice bucket and took a couple of sips straight from it. This seemed to catch Harry's attention which she noted because he started laughing.
"I really hope you had some lunch," he commented. River did not have lunch yet. She had dresses to pick for the evening which was extremely last minute but she no longer liked the one she planned. When she didn't respond, Harry asked, "Have you found your lip thing yet?"
River groaned. Leaned her head against the back of the sofa with eyes closed shut.
"I'll take that as a no," he said in a tone that revealed just a hint of his amusement. It was plenty to get River to perceive him and she had done so with a pretend-mean glimmer in her eyes. "Would you like me to get you a new one?"
