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Alice was the first to move. Her slimming gaze slipped to Adrien, and she quirked a brow.
“She’s joking, right?” Gampy said. He shoved at his glasses, as if that would help him see the humor in what I’d said.
Okay. See?Thiswas what I’d meant when I’d asked Adrien if there was anything important I needed to know before we started this whole mess. To avoid situations like this one.
I licked at my lips, daring a glance in his direction. I half-expected him to look pissed or exasperated with my carelessness. What I didn’t expect was for him to look... shellshocked? Panicked?
“I...” he started, his voice thick and unsure. “It’s not like I talk about her a ton.”
The words were meant for his family, but his eyes were bolted to mine like he was trying to communicate a silent message I wasn’t getting.
“Your new fiancée doesn’t know about your ex-fiancée?” Alice asked, the judgment clear in her tone.
Wait.What?
Adrien rolled his lips, his knee brushing my leg underneath the table. “She knows,” he said.
“Yes, sorry,” I said, playing catchup. “I knew. I just didn’t… I’ve never been great with names, and he’s only mentioned hers once or twice.”
It was the best I could come up with. Especially since half my brain was preoccupied with dissecting the little bomb that had just been dropped. Adrien had been engaged? For real? Since when? Had she broken it off? Or had he? Was he still in love with her? Was that the real reason he’d brought me here?
I wiped my palms against my jeans. It was suddenly so hot in here. Like hot enough to make my stomach twist.
Or maybe it was the eggs. Did bad eggs make your heart palpitate? If so, then it was definitelythe eggs.
“Okay.” Alice sounded more than a little skeptical. She turned her attention back to her brother. “And you’rebothaware that MJ’s coming to the party, right? Like both her and—”
“They can do whatever the fuck they want. We don’t have to talk about it.”
The anger was apparent in his voice, and the glare he shot his sister made it obvious she was overstepping. But Alice didn’t seem to want to back down. Her arms were crossed defiantly over her chest, and she was tapping a finger on her elbow, her jaw visibly set on edge.
“He’s right, that’s enough of that,” Anthony said calmly before Alice could go on the offensive again. He offered me a small smile. “What do you kids have planned for today? Anything exciting?”
“Ria and I are going sightseeing,” Adrien answered.
We were?
“Can I come?” Alice asked. Her tone was so dry it sounded almost sarcastic.
“No. But we’ll be taking your car, so it’ll be like you’re with us in spirit.”
“Why can’t I come?” She cocked a single brow, stretching out her sentence like it was synonymous withare you scared?
“Because I’d like to spend some quality alone time with my fiancée while we’re on vacation.”
She rolled her eyes. “It soundedlike you got plenty of that last—”
He chucked a bread roll at her face. She laughed, then chucked it right back at him. This caught Maxwell’s excited attention. He hopped across the table, bouncing on his little legs, his wings expanding as he danced, waiting for the bread roll to be tossed again.
I’d have found it adorable had my stomach not been twisting into knots. I took another sip of my plain black coffee, hoping it would help.
It didn’t.
“Now, if you’ll excuse us.” Adrien stood up, and I quickly followed suit. We grabbed our empty plates, thanked his parents for the breakfast, and just as we were about to make our exit, he turned to his dad again.
Anthony waved his hand dismissively before Adrien could speak. “Yeah, yeah. I said I’ll take care of it. It’ll be done by the evening.”
“Thank god,” Gampy and Alice said in perfect unison.
