Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 119548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 398(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 598(@200wpm)___ 478(@250wpm)___ 398(@300wpm)
Will looked at Max’s now outstretched hand and paused, then clapped their palms together, and they shook. “You’re on,” Will said.
I stared at them both tiredly. “Five hundred says we’ll get the divorce as planned.”
They both looked at me. “Each?” Max asked.
“Sure. If I win, you both owe me five hundred quid. If you win, I owe you both five hundred each. How’s that?”
They both instantly held out their hands, and I shook them both.
“Pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen,” Will said, standing up and smoothing out his jacket.
Max eyed him. “You’re awfully chipper.”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m going to win either way. There’s no way I lose all three of those, and my bet is the smallest stakes.” He grinned and opened the door. “Come on, Lord Coventry. Your bride awaits.”
“How long have we been waiting?” I hissed at Max behind me, fidgeting with my watch.
“Three minutes and eighteen seconds,” he replied dryly. “Twenty… nine… seconds longer than the last time you asked.”
Bullshit.
It’d been at least an hour.
“Max—”
“Relax,” he said, laying his hand on my shoulder. “She feels the same way you do right now. She still has a couple of minutes.”
I wriggled my toes inside my shoes. I’d worn these a hundred times, but today they were too stiff, too tight, too restricting. I wanted to throw them off. Same with the suit—it was new and tailored for me, but the collar of the shirt was too hard and tight, and the jacket felt like it was squeezing my shoulders down.
Sick.
I felt fucking sick.
Did Deli really feel this way, too? Was she this tense? Was her dress as claustrophobic as my suit felt right now?
Did she also have the urge to run away?
Because that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to yank off this tie, tell the world it wasn’t real, and fucking run away.
Max squeezed my shoulder, and I drew in a deep breath, casting my gaze around the guests. We’d kept things as small as we could. The guest list consisted of our closest family and friends, and there were no more than sixty people here. Max was holding the fort as my best man while my other closest friends waited in the wings with the bridesmaids. Their respective partners were sitting together in one of the closest rows, and I briefly caught the eye of Eva.
Of course, she had a shit-eating grin on her face.
She’d once done the same thing I was doing, after all. Marrying for a reason other than love. And hers and Matt’s wedding had been just as impulsive as this one was.
I took my attention away from her knowing gaze as her twin sister, Adelaide, whispered something to her, also shooting a similar smile my way.
Oh, the girls could piss off.
I didn’t need to ask them to know how they felt about this.
I bet they were members of that stupid shipping club the women in our lives were obsessed with.
I scanned my gaze over my family, nausea rolling in a wave through me yet again. What if Deli wasn’t coming? What if she’d changed her mind? We hadn’t spoken all morning. We hadn’t been allowed to exchange so much as a text. Our phones had even been confiscated by my mother to ensure we had no contact until we saw each other here.
At the aisle.
Right before we said our vows.
If Deli had run, I had no means of knowing. No means of contacting her. No means of chasing her.
A movement caught my eye, and I locked gazes with Nana. Her eyes were full of warmth and pure joy—a joy that radiated out of her very being. Her fragile, weakening frame was alive with life in a way I hadn’t seen in weeks and weeks, and as her elation settled around me in a bubble, I let out a long, shaky breath, and smiled at her.
Right.
That’s what this was for.
Her. Her happiness. Her last wish to come true.
The only difference between Granny and Nana was that I shared blood with one of them, and I would do this for Granny if she were in Nana’s position right now.
Nana’s eyes crinkled as the music started. The reverberation of the first notes of the music made my heart thump against my ribs, and I lowered my head, sucking in a deep breath.
First, Lucy. Her loose, light blue bridesmaid dress draped over her growing bump, and she looked the picture of elegance as she walked down the aisle with William’s steady care beside her. Then followed my sister, accompanied by Hugo, Henry’s older brother, wearing a different dress in the same shade of powder blue.
One by one, my friends walked the aisle with a bridesmaid, most of them from my family. Deli truly hadn’t cared as long as she could have Lucy as her chief bridesmaid, and nobody had said a word.