“Did your little scheme even work?” the maid of honor asked Tatiana. “Did Sebastian decide to marry you instead of his father?”
“He wouldn’t bite,” Tatiana said sourly. “So now we’re going to court.”
“So…actually,” I said, raising my hand, “I think I’m going to have to bow out of this court case because there’s like an extreme conflict of interest here that I am just now noticing.”
The bridezilla made a disgusted noise. “Think again.”
My friends gave me alarmed looks.
“You signed up to be a witness. You also signed a nondisclosure agreement. You start trying to throw the case and give Sebastian any information,” Tatiana threatened, “and not only will I have you thrown in jail, but I will ask the judge for a summary judgment in my favor on account of Sebastian colluding with a witness.”
“You can’t take his brother from him. Sebastian will be devastated!” I cried. “Alfie will be heartbroken.”
“I don’t care,” Tatiana said, crossing her arms. “He insulted me. Now I want to win. We’re going to court, and you need to testify. Otherwise, I’ll have the judge hold you in contempt of court, and you’ll be arrested.” She smirked. “I’m sure it will be a very public arrest too. Sure would be bad for business.”
I sat in a daze through the rest of the meeting while Tatiana screamed at her mother, her sister, her maid of honor, and Ivy.
When she had finally gone, Elsie poured me a glass of wine and gave me a piece of brie with sliced apples and a brown-sugar glaze.
“What am I going to do?” I groaned.
“We can’t have you arrested,” Ivy said in concern. “No one will work with us if you have a criminal record.”
“Why did you sign all those forms?” Elsie prodded.
“I wanted to save my apartment!” I wailed. “And it was a lot of text to read.”
“Don’t sign anything without reading it,” she scolded me, shaking my shoulders. “That was a terrible decision, Amy.”
“Story of my fucking life,” I said bitterly.
“Maybe when you testify you can just tell the truth that Tatiana is a sociopathic bitch,” Brea suggested, “and that Sebastian is awesome and has done an excellent job of taking care of Alfie and that Alfie absolutely needs to live with him.”
“It may not even go to court,” Sophie added. “It may just get settled.”
“I bet Sebastian offers them a monetary payment and they go away,” Grace added.
“Didn’t you say he literally won’t let anyone touch Alfie without sanitizing their hands?” Ivy asked. “He’s a great father. There’s no way a judge is going to take Alfie away from him. They’ll just tell Tatiana to get the fuck out of the courtroom.”
I stuffed the brie into my mouth and started to relax. “I’ll totally testify in his favor. Everything will be okay, right?”
“Right,” Ivy said firmly.
40
Sebastian
Amy seemed slightly jittery when I saw her at the final wedding planning meeting the next day.
Or maybe it was me. Tatiana’s statement had thrown me. I had spent the previous night anxiously pacing around the house.
I couldn’t lose Alfie. Tatiana would treat him poorly, and my father wouldn’t care.
Maybe I needed to leave the country. Unfortunately, then I would be wanted for kidnapping.
Fuck! What am I going to do?
Even though I had little energy, the wedding planning was a welcome distraction.
