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I dissolved into a puddle of giggles and tears. “Stop it, you’re awful.”
“You love me really. And I’m sure he has a giant cock. Like really, it’s going to be a python.”
“I don’t want his python anywhere near me.”
“Don’t worry. Tam Cornell is not the marrying kind, or the monogamous kind, for that matter. He’ll probably just ignore you and be out shagging whoever else he can find.”
“Great,” I said, my tone glum. I was going to be trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. Just what I’d always dreamed of. “I’d better go. I have to pack up all my worldly belongings.”
“Okay, but stay in touch. I want to know everything.”
“Will do. Love you.”
“Love you,” she said in return, and the line went dead.
I threw my phone back down and slumped onto my bed. I realised I didn’t need to pack at all. I still had my suitcase in my wardrobe filled with the clothes I’d thought I was going to take on my honeymoon. I’d believed that I’d have been spending the next few weeks on a beach, however, and had packed accordingly, but now I was going to be stuck in South London with Tam Cornell. What was life going to be like with him? How would he treat me? Would he take me out on dates, or lock me up in a room? The thought filled me with horror.
A soft knock came at my door. It opened a crack, and my brother’s dark head poked through the gap. He’d kept his eyes shut.
“Hope you’re decent,” he said.
“You can open your eyes, Jay.”
I was pleased to see him. Jayden could be a complete twat at times, but I did love him. He was nineteen and took after my dad, looks-wise, where I had the red hair of our mother. He thought himself a regular bad boy, wearing his dark hair long to go with the leather jackets and motorbikes he had a preference for. He had no idea what responsibility was, and it pissed me off something terrible that our father didn’t even care. If anything, he encouraged it, like he was living vicariously through his teenage son’s antics. If I dared say anything, Dad would just laugh and say that Jayden was still young and deserved to have a little fun. Any protests I might have about how I was only two years older, but was required to do whatever it took to help our family, fell on deaf ears. I felt as though the moment Mum died, I was expected to step into her shoes. I was the matriarch of the family now, and I needed to behave as such.
He opened his eyes and stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind him. “I just heard the news.” He wrinkled his nose as he looked me up and down. “I can’t believe you’re going to be shagging Tam Cornell.”
I scowled at him. “It’s not something I’m doing by choice, dickhead.”
“Even so, I’d have just refused if Dad had told me I was going to marry one of them.”
“Good thing they don’t have any sisters then, isn’t it?”
He barked laughter. “If they did, I’d probably have already fucked them.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you’d fucked a Cornell girl, her brothers would have killed you by now.”
He puffed out his chest. “I’d like to see them try.”
I shook my head at him. By Cornell standards, Jaydenwasjust a boy. The three of them could crush him in an instant, or at least the remaining two could now.
I didn’t want to fight with him, though. Despite everything, I loved my brother and now I was going to be moving out and living without him for the first time in my life. Jayden would never have admitted it to anyone, but we were close. After losing our mother, I was the only female in his life, and me being older, he had turned to me when he’d needed taking care of. Our father had employed maids to watch over us, but having someone there because they were paid to be was very different to having someone there because they loved you. That didn’t stop me wishing Jayden had been born before me, however. I’d have far preferred an elder brother. I imagined one who was overprotective of me, who would stand up to our father and back me up when it was needed.
“I know you’re only acting like a dick because you’re going to miss me.”
He shrugged. “Nah, I’m always a dick, but I will miss you. It’ll be weird living here, just me and Dad.”
We lived in a hotel with multiple staff. “It’ll never be just you and Dad.”
“You know what I mean.”
I reached out and ruffled his dark hair. He ducked his head and batted my hand away but grinned.
“Do you think I’ll be able to visit?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know.” I thought of what might happen if Jay was in the same room as Tam Cornell, especially if Tam hadn’t exactly been treating me nicely, and decided perhaps it was better if he didn’t. “Might be best if you give us some space, though, at least at first. Tam isn’t too happy about being forced into this situation either.”
Jayden snorted. “He’s lucky to marry you,” he said, echoing Layla’s words earlier.
