If I don’t spit it out, this will only get messier.
“Well, we officially started dating in France, but—”
“Oh, so this is new? I mean, I don’t like that you kept it from me, but I always knew if you both settled down, it would be with each other. At least, I had hoped that would be the case. Wait, you got together in Paris? When you were there helping out with our wedding?” She smiles brightly at Wills. “I love that. Isn’t that a great story, baby?”
My heart breaks at her optimism, knowing I’m about to break hers.
Wills doesn’t answer, his eyes locking on mine instead. “What else?”
Fuck’s sake.
“Do you remember last year, when Nora was testifying for the court case in New York? And how Jack and I were in Vegas beforehand?” Wills starts to shake his head and pulls Sadie into his chest.
Sadie scrunches up her face, confused. “I do…”
“Keep going,” Jack whispers.
“Well…” I let out a nervous laugh. “Jack and I got a little drunk and… we might have gotten married in one of those Elvis chapels,” I spit out.
It doesn’t hit her right away, but when it does, her face quickly falls.
“You’re married?” she whispers, hurt lacing every syllable.
“Sades,” Jack pleads. “Please don’t be upset. It’s not what it seems. We never mentioned it because we weren’t together. At first, we thought it was a drunken mistake. We were seeing other people, but then—”
“We started dating, and we realized how much we love each other.” I look up at Jack, hoping Sadie can recognize the love that passes between us like I often see between her and Wills. “So we decided to stay married. This is it for us. We both realize how stupid we’ve been over the years and are committed to making this marriage work. I know it’s not a fairytale story, but it’s our story, and to us… it’s perfect.”
“I understand.” She clenches her jaw, smiling through it, and I can see she’s holding back tears. “I’m happy for both of you. Who knew I would gain two sisters-in-law in a matter of weeks?”
“Sadie.” I let out a sigh. “We’re so sorry. We never meant for it to go on this long. Then the wedding happened, and we didn’t want to take any attention away from you.”
“It’s fine,” she snaps, and her lip starts to quiver. “I’m truly happy for both of you. I love you.” Her voice breaks as Wills shuts off the screen and kills the call.
I turn and bury myself into Jack, and he holds me tight as we sit in silence. I can’t help thinking of the pain we’ve caused one of the most important people in our lives.
“This is my fault,” I mumble into Jack’s chest. “I’m so sorry.”
He pulls back, confused. “What do you mean it’s your fault? We’re in this together.”
“I asked you to keep this a secret in Paris. Sadie would have understood if we’d told her when this first started. I don’t like upsetting her.”
“Annabelle,” he chastises. “I’m a grown man. If I wanted to tell people, I would have talked to you about it. I agreed with all the reasons you wanted to hold off. I still agree with you.” He kisses my head. “She’ll get over it. Once she calms down, we’ll explain it in more detail. She’ll be ecstatic. She’s just upset that the two people she’s known and loved the longest did something monumental without her. You would be upset too.”
“I know. It doesn’t make it easier, though.”
“Declan and Nora eloped,” he reminds me.
I nod. “They did, but that’s nowhere near the same. They told us the same day, and we got to celebrate with them. We’ve kept this a secret for over a year. That’s where we went wrong.”
Both our phones ping with a message and the second I check it, any reassurance I felt leaves my body.
Wills: Really fucked up.
“No,” Jack announces loudly. “You know what? They hid their relationship from me. So how the fuck is this different?”
My shoulders sag. “Jack, you can’t compare the two.”
“Maybe you can’t, but I can. When they found out Wills knew me, they still kept it from me. And I know they did that so they could work things out between them before the shit hit the fan. It’s the same fucking thing, B.”
