Everyone is.
Everyone.
I can’t look at Laney. I don’t want to watch her realize she’s been fucking around with a guy who lets his junk hang out for the whole world to see.
I don’t want to see the horror. The embarrassment.
This isn’t how I was supposed to tell her.
“Theo,” Emma says. “You’re paying for my wedding?”
I clear my throat and look down.
“Theo.”
“Theo?” Dad says. “You should’ve told me. I had money saved for this.”
“I got it, Dad,” I force out.
“How are you paying for this wedding?” Laney whispers.
“Oh my god, the press,” Gail says behind me. “They’ll eat her alive.”
Heat flashes over the cold numbing my body.
She’s not wrong.
Future CEO dating a porn staris a fucking awful headline.
Laney loves her job. She wasbornfor this. It’s her heritage, and she wears it well.
“You paid for my wedding,” Emma repeats.
I finally find my voice along with my nuts, and I look up, aware that my face is flaming.
“He’s not—” Chandler starts.
I cut him off. “I’m paying for your wedding, because I love you, and I want you to have your dreams.”
Emma’s breath is coming quick and fast as she turns on Chandler again. “Whyis mybrotherpaying for the wedding thatyouinsistedyou could afford?”
“Because Bean & Nugget is behind on taxes and he has no money,” Sabrina answers for him.
Emma gasps. “Isthatwhy you wouldn’t let me do Bean & Nugget’s returns? So I wouldn’t knowyou weren’t paying taxes?”
“They’re not behind anymore,” Addison says from the crowd while Chandler stutters that Sabrina’s making stuff up. “He sold it to cover the debt and there’s nothing left. My company handled the closing in Denver this morning.”
Chandler goes ghost white.
Thecaughtkind of ghost white.
I choke.
Several gasps go up in the crowd.
And Sabrina—oh, fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
