“Sorry, Blade,” I said, taking off the veil. “I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!”
No one laughed. I glanced around. My grandmother was sobbing. Bettina and Ida were holding her upright.
“Are you sure you weren’t in on it?” my father demanded, jumping up and pointing at Blade. “Because it was awfully convenient of you to find the ‘love of your life,’” he made air quotes, “right as you’re going after the Harris & Schultz contract.”
“We assure everyone present that we had no idea this was going to occur,” Greg announced, going into damage-control mode. “Our family would never participate in such a con.”
“Oh really?” Grant Holbrook drawled, standing up. The room was dead silent as he walked up to the altar, expensive shoes clicking on the marble floor. “Because I have a theory. I have a theory that Avery wasn’t the only con artist getting married today. Avery, may I see your watch?”
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
Grant held out his hand.
“Get away from her,” Blade snarled.
Grant looked at him smugly. “Avery,” he asked, “do you know what kind of watch this is?”
I looked between Grant and Blade. Blade looked ashamed.
“No. I think it’s just some crappy mall kiosk watch my father bought me.”
“Au contraire,” Grant said. “This, my dear, is a one-of-a-kind, extremely rare Patek Philippe aviator watch. Only a handful of them were ever made. I have a similar one, though mine is not in as good condition as this one.” He held up my wrist and inspected the watch. “I’m no expert, but I would say that since this is in a rare stainless steel, it is worth close to ten million dollars.”
“I—ten million dollars?”
He nodded. “I’m shocked Blade didn’t tell you, as he’s much more of a watch connoisseur than even I am.”
“Blade, what the fuck?”
He didn’t say a word, he didn’t even look at me.
“Blade. Is he serious? Please tell me he’s lying!” I pleaded.
Blade shrugged helplessly. “It is a rare watch.”
“You knew I needed the money! That was the whole reason I asked you to be my fake fiancée,” I screamed. “You knew, and you just let me make a complete fool of myself. Did you enjoy it, watching me spiral out of control for your own amusement? Claiming that you loved me, that we were in this together, when all you had to do was not be a lying psychopath? I could have sold this stupid watch and bought the house fair and square. Fuck, I would have sold it to you. What the fuck, Blade?”
“I needed to show that I was relationship oriented,” he said quietly. “The contract.” He sighed. “For what it’s worth, I do care about you.”
I pulled off the giant teardrop diamond ring and threw it at his face, making him wince. Then I turned and ran down the aisle, half tripping on my dress as I fled.
65
Blade
Istared helplessly as Avery threw the ring at me. I barely registered the sting on my cheek where the diamond had cut me. It bounced on the ground, and I bent down slowly to pick it up. The cold stone jerked me back to action. I had clearly lost the contract and the respect of my family, but I could not lose her. I had to make Avery see that I loved her.
I spun on my heel to chase her but was met with a fist to my face.
“I warned you,” Edward growled as I stumbled, “not to hurt my friend.” He reared back to hit me again, and then all hell broke loose.
Weston tackled Edward, and I skidded out of the way as Edward, who was a former combat Marine, punched my brother in the jaw.
“Shit!” he cursed as Edward roared, grabbed one of the wicker chairs, and started whaling at me and my brothers.
“You stupid lying piece of shit!” he hollered, coming after me.
“He’s going to kill Blade!” Archer yelled.
