Margot exhales. “That is… somehow the worst pep talk and best pep talk I’ve ever heard.”
Amelia nods, satisfied. “Thank you.”
Margot turns back to me. “What does Victor want?”
“To play the happy couple until we can quietly annul this thing.”
“And what do you want?” Margot asks.
I blink. “What?”
“What do you want, Harper?”
I open my mouth before closing it again.
Because what I want—what my body stupidly remembers wanting in Vegas—was a man who was looking at me exactly the opposite of how Thomas used to look at me.
Because when you’re married for as long as I’d been—five and a half years—you knew all the looks.
You knew “Lust” and “Adoration” and “Scorn.”
In that last year of my marriage with Thomas, all I’d known was “Scorn.”
Until the “incident.”
But with Victor Kade? I’d had a suited, sexy, handsome Adonis looking at me like he didn’t know the definition of scorn. Like he liked what he saw. Like I wasn’t a punchline.
But if the last year has taught me anything, it’s that wanting is dangerous. Wanting is how you become the fool.
Wanting is how you end up coming home from a trip back to your French-Canadian hometown, luggage still at your feet, to a husband who says “I never loved you.”
So I give Margot the easiest answer I can find.
“I want this to not be happening,” I say.
Amelia lifts her yarn. “Okay. But it is happening. So we need a battle plan.”
Margot lifts her wine glass. “Agreed.”
Amelia lifts a spring roll. “Agreed. Also, Declan says if Victor breaks your heart, he will ‘have a respectful conversation with him’ which is fiancé code for murder.”
Margot sighs. “Declan is too good for this family.”
“He’s marrying in. He’ll adapt.”
My phone buzzes again on the cushion beside me, and I flinch like it’s a landmine. Amelia instantly lunges for it.
“Ooh! Is it Victor? Is it his scary PR agent? Is it the chapel offering you a brand deal for Gamer Marriage Core?”
“Don’t,” I say quickly, snatching it first.
I check the email notification, noticing a new calendar invite….and an attachment.
FROM: Rachel Stone
TO: Harper Beaumont
SUBJECT: Media Strategy - TIME SENSITIVE
