“So you weren’t fucking my friend and bridesmaid back there?” I snarl.
His deep brown eyes widen, and his brows shoot up.
“It was nothing. She was hugging me, that’s all. I was nervous about something going wrong today. I want it all to be perfect for you.”
My gaze slides over his white tuxedo jacket. Another choice of his. I wanted black.
“Hugging you? Is that what you call it?” I splutter as Kelly appears behind him.
She at least has the sense to look remorseful, keeping her eyes down, unable to meet my gaze. But maybe that’s just the shock of being caught.
“You’re acting crazy, Jude. You’ve got it wrong,” Callum says, stepping toward me.
I take a step back.
“Oh, right. Blame me. I’m not fucking crazy! I know what I saw, Cal! Only, I didn’t realize you hug a person by taking their dick down your throat too.”
“Fuck,” Callum mutters. “Jude, please. It meant nothing. It was a mistake.”
Kelly scoffs in disbelief and he snaps his eyes to her, throwing her a warning look.
“I love you, Jude. I’m marrying you,” he says, his tone resembling a plea.
“Lucky me,” I deadpan.
Kelly stays silent but finally meets my eyes. The hurt in them is palpable as Callum moves closer to me.
“It was one time,” he says in a low voice. “A mistake.”
“Liar,” Kelly whispers, her eyes filling with tears. “He’s lying to you. He has been for months,” she chokes, shouldering past him and breaking into a run.
Callum doesn’t even glance after her as her retreating sobs echo off the walls.
“Don’t throw away the last five years over… whatever the hell that mess was you just saw. She means nothing to me.Please, Jude. Everyone’s waiting for us. Your father’s waiting to walk you down the aisle.”
My throat thickens.
I search his eyes, looking for a trace of the man I thought I knew. The man I was prepared to spend the rest of my life with.
Callum’s despair is tangible and flowing off him in waves.
My stomach contracts like it’s being held in an iron fist.
It’s not me he’s scared of losing.
It’s my father.
“You would have slept with me on our wedding night with her still all over you,” I whisper.
Callum opens his mouth, but I silence him with a sharp palm raised into the air.
“Nothing you say can fix this, Cal.”
I slide the Harry Winston off my finger and hold it out to him.
“But I’ll say one thing that will be the first step toward fixing me—it’s over.”
“Huh?” I’m snapped back to the present by Mel looking at me with a glint in her eyes.
