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Beau’s mother was always lovely to me, and she obviously worshipped her son. However, she was your typical Stepford trophy wife, but she genuinely seemed happy in that role. Mr. Hunter was attentive, caring, and very loving toward her. It appeared as if they were happily married, and Beau never told me otherwise.
“You and Beau will make gorgeous babies. I can’t wait for you to make me a grandmother. You’ll hire the same nanny I had for Ethan. You’ll use the same OB-GYN. Oh my goodness! I’m so excited for baby Beau.”
Nanny? OB-GYN? Baby Beau? What. The. Fuck?
If the room wasn’t spinning before, now it was sideways.
“With all due respect, I don’t want a nanny raising my kids, Mrs. Hunter.”
“Oh, don’t be silly, darling. You’ll always be the mother, but you’ll need help with five children. Especially after you quit your job and become a stay-at-home mom and wife. Your job will be taking care of your family.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yes, Beau always wanted a big family. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with any more than Beau, but he was so perfect, I never felt the loss of not having more children.”
It was like I was in this alternate universe. If I thought my parents didn’t listen to me, his would be far worse.
“Now this…” Mrs. Hunter grabbed another gown off one of the gold racks. “This… is what dreams are made of.”
I was officially in couture hell, and as I stared at myself in the mirror, I didn’t recognize the woman staring back at me. She was a complete stranger. Not even a version of myself, but a whole-ass other person.
Shouldn’t I recognize myself in my own wedding gown? Wasn’t it the point to look like myself?
Shaking off the endless questions, I stepped off the stage they made for me and asked the butler for a glass of wine.
“Martello, please make sure it’s white wine,” Mom added, making me feel even worse if that was possible. “The last thing we need is a red stain on the dress.”
For the rest of the fitting, I thought about nothing and everything as I looked into that mirror. My heart beat a mile a minute. I couldn’t help but watch my mother-in-law’s demeanor.
Her mannerisms.
Her composure.
The way she spoke—always prim and proper.
Everything about her screamed perfection.
Her hair.
Her nails.
Her makeup and outfit.
Will Beau expect me to be like her?
My thoughts raced as much as my pulse was.
I bit my bottom lip, a nervous habit I developed in childhood. All of a sudden, I saw Ethan leaning against the far wall as if he appeared out of thin air.
He mouthed, “Stop biting your lip.”
It immediately threw me back to another place and time where I was hanging on his back before he hung us on the rope to jump into our waterhole. It was right before he kissed me for the first time.
He grinned like he knew what I envisioned.
We stared at each other through the mirror, the same way Beau and I had the night prior. There in front of me was my future in a wedding gown while behind me stood my past where no one could see him except for me…
And the irony was not lost on me.
