Page 12 of Three Billionaire Grooms and Not the Right Bride

“I’m so glad. I wanted to call you, but I worried your mom...”

“Oh yes. My mom. I completely understand. She’s not in the best of moods, you know, since it happened.”

“I don’t know. Since what happened? Do you know that I’m in Italy?”

“Of course I know you’re in Italy, girl. The entire world knows you’re in Italy, secluded in the luxurious villa, making little billionaire babies with your sexy as heck billionaire husbands. It’s all over the news and social media. Naturally, your husbands are making sure no one infringes on your privacy.”

I collapse onto the bed.

“Isn’t it crazy how it all turned out? I mean, it’s just insane. I must admit I would never have guessed any of this. And let me tell you, neither could my mother. She’s still in shock.”

“Does she still want to kill me?”

“I’m sure she has thoughts, but you’re the Skycrest bride; do you honestly think your husbands would let anyone, least of all my mother, harm you?”

“Tatiana, about that. I can get this annulled. I just have to get out of Italy. In fact, I’m ready and packed, and if I can sneak past them—”

“What? Why? Hadley, listen to me. Do you love them?

“What? No. Absolutely not. They’re arrogant, egotistical, and—”

“And you love them. Hadley, I’m allergic to grapes. Found out in college and just didn’t tell my mother. I knew I could use it to my advantage later on in life, and look how it turned out.”

“But you didn’t tell me anything. Oh my god. You were eating bunches of grapes that day.”

“I know. It’s not fatal. I just swell up really badly, and then it goes down. I ate that many grapes because I didn’t want to marry them. I’m in love with someone else, and he is not a billionaire, so you can imagine.”

“You deliberately made yourself sick?” I ask, shocked.

“I did. I had no idea what was going to happen. I didn’t plan any of it, but I needed time and, of course, trust my mother to come up with a plan so diabolical, only for it to explode in her face.”

“Oh god.”

“She deserved it, at least a little. Besides, I think she might be coming around again. Now, do you love them?”

“No,” I say too quickly.

“Then why are you leaving?”

“Because I can’t be here. Because they deserve someone like you.”

“Tell that to them,” Tatiana laughs. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange they would discover they are, in fact, married to a girl no one knows called Hadley Young and then not immediately have the marriage annulled before you could even say, 'But Mrs. Neal?" Why do you think that?”

“I have no idea. I think they’re just trying to get back at me.”

“Yeah, men like them don’t have the time for that kind of pettiness. Hadley, imagine I’m holding your hand when I say this. You did something to them. I don’t know when it happened, but you did something to them. You became theirs no matter what. They had to have you or else they would have annulled your marriage. Do you see?”

“No,” I squeak. My heart is going to explode, and nothing makes enough sense for me to believe Tatiana. No, she’s wrong. I still need to leave, and I need to get this marriage scrapped off the books.

“I have to go. But I wanted to thank you. You saved my life. You gave me a second chance to choose the man I love, and I hope you’ll do the same with the men you love.”

Before I can say anything, Tatiana hangs up, leaving me facing the walls of the bedroom alone.

Well.

I mean, it changes nothing. Right? Right. I need to take a shower and get out of here. That is the right thing to do. Also, I’m so happy for Tatiana. She deserves every bit of happiness she can get with a mother like hers.

I stall and take an extra-long shower, smother my skin in lotion, and slip into a modest summer dress. It’s the only kind of clothes I have with me, but then again I packed for the Maldives, not to make breakaways from a luxurious villa in Italy.