Page 96 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

Marie’s throat works.

Tiff grabs the tissues.

And Briar hugs me tight.

Then we’re all hugging and sniffing and I know that whether or not Thorn comes around, I deserve to be with someone who trusts me, who chooses me.

Who loves every part of me.

And gives me every part of them in return.

Because I won’t settle for anything less.

Twenty-Nine

Thorn

Weddings. Christ.

We spent the morning watching Brooks and Briar exchange vows to make their marriage official, and now the true festivities are just getting underway inside their house.

Luckily, all of our digging into Angela’s files, uncovering Lyon shell company after shell company, along with the pressure from the FBI meant that the ceremony went off without a hitch.

It helps that Brooks and Briar kept it small, just us.

And that Pascal and his team beefed up security even further beforehand.

Music drifts through the room. Laughter is loud and abundant. Champagne glasses clink and toasts are made. Briar and Brooks are surrounded by the people who love them, and for the first time in months, nobody is talking about the Lyons or security or shell companies or blackmail networks.

They deserve that.

But their wedding being small means that I’ve seen River more in a few hours than I’ve seen her over the last couple of weeks.

River.

Who’s barely looked at me.

Whose words still drift through my mind.

I can’t do this with you until you trust me enough to tell me the truth.

River.

Who I want. I need.

And I know I can’t keep doing this.

Barely sleeping, barely eating, barely living.

So…I have to tell her.

And maybe I’ll still barely be living when she walks away.

But at least I’ll have tried instead of standing on the sidelines like a fucking coward.

I glance up from my beer, expecting to find her celebrating beside Briar and Brooks, finally ready to cut my heart out and present it to her on a silver platter, but she isn’t smiling and toasting the happy couple.

Instead, she’s slipping from the room and disappearing outside.