AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I understand why Mathias thinks it’s me. So much of it hit close to home. Things only he and I would know. Like how he gave me Bernie—now Bernice Sanders, my giant turtle—as a birthday gift. Still, him thinking I could do anything to harm him is like a cold, bitter dagger piercing my heart. I’m stunned. Hatred—pure unvarnished, unapologetic hatred—is in every sweep of his gaze. He studies me as if I am a frog he is about to vivisect in biology class. Something to be cut open, like he is trying to figure out how I could have fooled him, the great Mathias Shelby, for so long.
Rubbing my forehead, I feel a tension headache blooming. My chest hurts from the way Mathias looks at me. The horrible things he said. Shame lances through me. he trusted me and I let him down is all that I can think about.
I just never thought folks finding out about us would take this nasty turn. Thi told me it would time and time again, but I didn’t believe him. Deep down I thought maybe the reason he didn’t want folks to know was because he was ashamed of me—some waif he’d taken under his magnanimous wing, showing pity by giving her a home and an education. My guilt comes from my secret wish. Something I keep so hidden and pushed down deep, I wouldn’t even allow myself to think it.
“I guess.” I mumble, taking the pen and signing my life over to a man who hates me more than anything right now.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise. Angel and I got shotgun married the first time too.” Easy reaches out to reassure me, across LL, who’s walking us both down the aisle in a double wedding that was never supposed to be.
“Humph.” He mutters, “This is where keeping all these Love secrets gets you.”
“Boy, hush,” Easy tells him. “Look at me and Angel doing just fine. We’re getting married for the second time.”
“Yeah, after he tore all these folks’ stuff up from Alabama to Africa over your little trifling tail.” He sighs, rolling his eyes toward heaven. “Don’t think they don’t want reparations for it. They’re just giving you time to get settled in with the baby.”
The wedding march starts, and my heart drops to my tummy like a hot brick.
As we walk, Easy and LL fall silent. The chapel is full of people. Both sides are packed with family and friends, there for Angel and Easy. Shock registers on the faces of the guests when they see both of us coming down the aisle, Ezekiel-Jane in buttercup yellow and me in a beautiful white gown my cousin Summer had made for Easy’s and Angel’s wedding party, which she had to basically rip apart and take in for my smaller but still curvy frame.
It’s not the audience I notice. It’s the two men standing in front of us on the raised dais. Both have deep-sandy skin, with one slightly lighter and just a hair shorter than the other. They could be brothers, save for the cognac-colored eyes of one and the ice-cold silver of the other.
The differences don’t stop there, though. Angel is looking at Easy like the sun rises and sets at her feet. Mathias Shelby Jr., the man who has been my best—and sometimes only—friend since I was a teen, the man I secretly dreamed to share this day with, looks at me with cold, unmitigated hatred…and lust.
* * *
One thingabout Mama-Pete is she can, on a dime, turn vinegar to wine. With an added bride and groom setting and an added couple topping the cake and references to just Angel and Easy removed, she’s turned this reception from a single to a double wedding.
“Talk about shotgun married, cuz.” Easy winks over to me, cuddling her baby, Judah, in her arms as he sleeps peacefully among the boisterous group that is our family.
“I know everything worked out for y’all, Easy, but please don’t misunderstand—he is mad as hell. He proposed to and was engaged to someone else two hours ago. Their wedding was being planned, girl.” We’re huddled together, with the men on either side of us. Mama-Pete, aware of how everything went down, doesn’t want the focus divided between the two couples.
This wedding was the hottest ticket in town. LL, savvy campaign manager that he is, thought it would be a great idea to give people their phones back after Angel insisted on them being confiscated when it was just going to be Easy and him; now our guests are flooding social media with the story of the swoon-worthy double wedding.
Natalie, who was Mathias’s date to the wedding, was quietly ushered away. Everyone knows and was probably invited to their upcoming wedding that will now never take place.
She’s the campaign’s chairperson and has been heavily involved since he announced his candidacy. Everyone was already saying how they were going to be the Washington powered couple with their beauty, grace, and wealth.
Now she’s heading back to the campaign headquarters to put out the fires this story caused and get ahead of whatever his opponent has to say. Mathias’s war room is already getting ahead of the story, turning the tables on Joi’s piece and hyping our supposed love story. The only problem is Mathias’s poor job of hiding his rage. Every look my way is wrathful.
The kiss at the altar was a barely there brush of his lips. I stood stunned by the events of the day, but then the smooth brush of his lips shocked me out of my daze, causing me to look up into mercury silver of his gaze and the promise of retribution within.
“We have to dance now,” Easy tells me as Lourdes, one of Angel sisters, comes over to take Judah out of Easy’s hands. “This was my parents’ favorite song. I hope you don’t mind.” Easy smiles down at me, taking my hand. She pulls me out to the dance floor. I have never seen her so delighted. Love animates my sweet, demure cousin. She radiates life like the buttercup blossoms she loves so much, twirling me around and around.
I laugh with her until she stops abruptly, and just as the strains of the old-school song “Love Ballad” come on, I’m caught in the arms of my new unwanted husband.
Strong arms cover my back, pulling me into the hard chest of the man I longed for during these six years. I look up and up to reach the cool gaze of my new husband. He looks down with a smile that doesn’t reach those eyes. It’s for the public. Within the depths, I can see the unbridled malice meant solely for me.
“Smile, wife. Show the people how happy you are to get what you wanted.”
I try to paint a smile on my face.
“Not like that. You look like you’re trying too hard.” He turns us to the gentle sway of the song.
I make an effort to soften my smile just a hint, keeping my eyes on him the way Easy is looking at Angel in my periphery.
I can’t stand to look at Mathias. He’s too cold, too calculating. This is not the man I know. Not my best friend at all. Now I fully understand what it’s like to be someone he abhors, the target of his wrath and revenge. My tummy flips with dread. I have to make him see.
“I didn’t do this, Thi.” I grip his shoulders. Then I hold him tighter, trying through touch to make him see. “You know I would do nothing to ever jeopardize your career.”
