Freezing at his tone, I look at the screen to watch Dean’s hand slowly reappear. Lifting it into the frame, he makes a show of tucking his free arm behind his head, on a long, heavy sigh. “Jesus… you’re too easy, Mills—and entirely too uptight.”
“And you’re anasshole, Dean,” I tell him. “A rude, insufferable asshole.”
“Yeah, I know.” The corner of his mouth twitches. “You gonna keep sweet talkin’ me or are you gonna tell me why you called?”
Hesitating, I contemplate hanging up without answering him because calling him was a mistake. Instead, I sigh. “Did you tell anyone?” I ask quietly. “About what I told you last night? About Allister and Paige? That they’ve been?—”
“Fucking behind your back.” His mouth falls into a hard, flat line. “No.” He sounds insulted for some reason. “I haven’t told anyone.”
“Okay.” Nodding, I look away from the screen for a moment. “Can you…not? Tell anyone.”
When he doesn’t answer, I look back at the screen to find him staring at me. Now he doesn’t look insulted. He looks disappointed. “Why?”
“Because.” Caught off guard, I shake my head. “It’s embarrassing and I don’t want anyone to know.” Huffing out an impatient breath, I feel my forehead crumple into a frown. “Look, can you just not say anything about it—please?”
“Sure.” His mouth flattens for a moment before he looks away. “I can do that.” Yanking his arm out from under his head, he ends the call before I can say another word.
THIRTEEN
By ten o’clock Sunday morning, mysuite wasfilled with people—my mother and my aunt. My little sister Gwen, who is my bridesmaid, and Alice who showed up at nine o’clock on the dot with the guest list—three hundred people, most of which I don’t even know—as instructed. When I told her what I wanted her to do with it, she was confused but more than happy to oblige.
True to form, Paige didn’t breeze in until almost noon—less than an hour before we had to leave for the church. As soon as she made her grand entrance, the hair stylist pulled her into a chair and got to work while the make-up artist cooed over herperfect bone structure.
She texted Allister directly after we spoke andtold him the same story I told her—that I’d sequestered myself at the Hawthorne so I could get the Bostrom account in order before we left on our honeymoon.
Paige: See? Nothing to worry about. Just boring, bland Millie doing boring, bland Millie shit.
After that, Allister left me alone. I spent the evening gorging myself on room service desserts and watchingRunaway Bride.
Somehow, it seemed fitting.
He texted me first thing this morning with anI can’t wait to marry you!I barely had the stomach to text back a heart emoji before I threw my phone on a loud, frustrated scream that prompted my suite’s dedicated butler to call the room to ask if I was okay.
I’m not okay.
I’m not heartbroken either. I’m not sad.
I’m angry.
The more I sit with it, reading and re-reading their text messages, the angrier I get.
So ridiculously angry that it borders on rage.
Mycousinand myfiancé.
Crying and possible catatonia will come later.
Right now, I’m focused on getting through the next few hours.
When she realized I hadn’t eaten anything, my mother called room service and had a full spread breakfast sent up. As soon as it arrived, she ordered me to sit while she split a croissant in half and filled it with French scrambled eggs and crispy bacon—my favorite since I was a child.You’re going to sit right here and eat. The last thing we need is you passing out during your vows.
I couldn’t agree more.
Even though just the thought of eating makes me sick, I do as I’m told, taking small, methodical bites of my breakfast sandwich while I listen to the women in my family move around me. Gwen snapping selfies for Instagram. My mother and my aunt talking about the wedding guests and what they think they’ll be wearing. Paige and the beauty team gossiping while they make her even more beautiful than she already is.
“Ms. Blackwell?”
I look up to find a concerned-looking Alice standing over me. Behind her, I can see Paige, still in the make-up chair, still being fussed over and I realize it’s been like that my entire life. Paige has always breezed in at a moment’s notice and found a way to steal the limelight. A way to make herself the center of attention.
