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I tucked my hand under my cheek and drew my knees closer to my chest. “Please, just leave me alone, Dad.”
The large number of the congregation from two different parts of the city meant people had expected to see strange faces. No one had clicked when what must have been a paid gun from the third family had slipped in as well. I didn’t know what had happened to the man who’d conducted the shooting except that he’d been caught and dealt with by the Cornells in their own way. Neither the Wynters nor the Cornells were the kinds of people who handed those who’d wronged them over to the police. Any reports of gunshots by locals had been dismissed as firecrackers set off to celebrate the wedding. No one reported the information that there hadn’t even been a wedding because the groom had been murdered right after he’d said his vows.
I’d been bundled out of there, wrapped in my dad’s jacket to hide the bloodstains and put straight back in the wedding car to be taken to the hotel. I’d torn off my dress, my eyes dry from shock. Layla had come with me, also pale and disbelieving at what had happened, holding my hand, her arm around my shoulders.
I couldn’t imagine what the Cornell family were feeling right now, to lose a son and a brother. Poor Leo, as the best man, had been standing right next to Harvey when it had happened. They would all be blaming themselves now, wondering why they hadn’t noticed a stranger in the crowd. There was also a little part of me that blamed myself. If he hadn’t been marrying me, Harvey would have never been there in the first place.
“Hallie, I need you to sit up and wipe your face.” My father’s tone had changed. He meant business now, and there wasn’t any messing with him when he sounded like that.
I sniffed and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I didn’t meet his eye, though. I was ashamed of feeling so sorry for myself. But I kept thinking of what I should have been doing at that point—my wedding night, our honeymoon afterwards. I should have been basking in the sunshine, staying in one of the stilt huts over the water in Tahiti, drinking champagne and making love to my new husband all night, not lying in my old bedroom in the same pair of pyjamas I’d had on for the last week.
“You understand that nothing has changed, don’t you, Hallie?”
I turned my head. “What do you mean?Everythinghas changed. My whole future has changed.”
“No, it hasn’t. Maybe the man you were supposed to spend it with won’t be the same, but that is all.”
I still didn’t understand what he was getting at, my forehead crumpling.
“What happened on your wedding day only proves that the Gilligans are still a massive threat to us. If they were able to infiltrate a place that was filled with the most powerful people in both our families, and still managed to take down Harvey Cornell, it shows we need to pull together more than ever.”
“What are you saying, Dad?”
He drew in a breath. “I’m saying that there still needs to be a wedding.”
I froze. “What?”
“You can still marry one of the Cornell brothers.”
My mind reeled. “But...but...isn’t the younger one already engaged to be married?”
“I wasn’t talking about that brother.”
My mouth dropped open. “Tam Cornell? Is that who you’re talking about?”
I remembered the hulk of a man, clothed fully in black, standing at the back of the church, glaring at me as I made my entrance. It hadn’t been the first time I’d come across Tam Cornell. I’d had an encounter with him once before when I’d been eighteen.
My father had taken us to a hotel in central London to meet one of his influential business partners. I hadn’t wanted to be there, but he’d insisted both Jayden and I join him. He wanted to show everyone he was a family man—the kind who could be trusted—as well as a good businessman. Except things hadn’t gone to plan, and the night had ended in bloodshed.
Despite Tam being my enemy, he’d also saved me that night. We’d shared an illicit moment, one that had stayed with me for a long time, and that I’d kept a secret from everyone—even Layla. I’d known how it would look, and I didn’t want to be judged for it. I assumed, due to me never hearing about it again, Tam had also kept his mouth shut. Maybe he’d realised it wouldn’t have put him in the best light. I’d been eighteen then, and he must have already turned thirty. Considering whose daughter I was, it wouldn’t have gone down well.
“But he’s old!” I protested.
“He’s thirty-four, Hallie. Not that old.”
“Thirteen years older than me.” To me, that felt like a whole other generation. “And besides, he never even liked the idea of me and Harvey getting married. He hated that our families were being joined. He’s never going to want to marry me.”
“Yes, well, that is where we’re having a little difficulty. Tam isn’t exactly pleased about the idea himself.”
This was going from bad to worse.
“You want me to marry someone who doesn’t even want to be married to me?”
“He’s offered a compromise. He wants you to live with him for thirty days before the wedding. He says that if you both still agree to the marriage after that, then he’ll go through with it.”
“And if I say no?”
My father’s eyes hardened. “You won’t say no, Hallie. This is important. Nothing is more important than family. Family is everything.”
