“My family will stay in a hotel, and you won’t meet them.”
“That doesn’t work,” he says, watching as I pull my pants back on.
I sigh and walk past him, back towards the slope. I start slowly walking down; my board isn’t as far away as I thought. My feet slip out from under me. Soren’s arm wraps around my waist, pulling my feet from the ground as he lifts me up easily.
“Be careful,” he whispers in my ear before setting me back down.
“There is no way in hell my family is staying with us.”
“We need to make this believable. If I was your real husband, I’d never force your family to stay in a hotel. There’s lots of extra bedrooms.”
“I’m in one already.”
“You need to move into my room. We can’t sleep in separate beds as newlyweds.”
“I’m not doing this,” I grumble, my face hot.
“Yes, you are.” His grip tightens around my waist. “Tell them they can stay with us, and when they show up, we’re going to act like a real married couple.”
“I don’t have to sleep in the same bed for that. I can sleep on the floor.”
“No one is sleeping on the floor. You’re sleeping in bed with me. And you’re going to pretend to be in love and horny as fuck.”
“Do we really need to go through all of this?”
“It could be life or death in court. Your family and friends need to believe this is real. So at night, we might need to make noises.”
“Noises,” I deadpan. He’s begun walking down the slope tediously slow. He has his skis in one hand and me in the other.
“We have to pretend to fuck each other,” he says. I’m speechless until I remember the other issue.
“What about the bodies?”
10
SOPHIE
Iget off the phone with my mom. Since I didn’t tell her when I was getting married, she didn’t want to tell me when they’d be here.
I hang up in frustration and pinch my nose. This is going to be hell. Family visiting for the holidays is stressful in anormalsituation. This is anything but normal.
At least my mom was kind enough to inform me how many people were suddenly coming. It’s going to be a full house of family members that I need to convince my fake marriage is real. My brother, his wife and kids. My aunt and uncle. And my mom and dad.
As much as I hate to admit it, Soren is right. We’re committed to this farce, and the only way to make it work is by making it look real. If my family found it was fake, they would flip. If they found out the reason why? Even worse.
I hear the basement door open, and Soren comes sweeping in. He’s in a great mood despite the task he was given.
Other people cleaned the bathrooms before the family arrived. We had to hide bodies.
“What did you do with them?” I ask.
“I wrapped them,” he says chipperly.
“Wrapped them in what?”
“As presents,” he says. I gawk at him. Apparently, he’s been hacking up body parts and wrapping them up in boxes with bows for the past several hours.
“What?” I ask. He moves past me into the kitchen and grabs a glass from the cabinet.
