Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
And then I found out Oliver had taken her to the hospital. Found out he’d been the one to hold my girlfriend’s hand after she miscarried a baby. His baby.
“I did horrible things,” she says now, “and I told so many lies trying to protect you from them. Maybe sometime we should talk about what happened.” Those tears spill out of her eyes and down her cheeks. “About the mistakes I made.”
The sound of the front door opening and closing is followed by the tap of heels through the foyer, and then my mother appears in the kitchen.
“Don’t you two look cozy,” she says, approval in her tone. Her smile falls away when she takes in Portentia’s tears. “Oh. Should I go and give you time to talk?”
Portentia shakes her head and wipes her cheeks. “No, ma’am. I’m ready when you are.”
Mother purses her lips in disapproval. “It’s okay if you need to cancel, Portentia dear. We can shop for dresses for the wedding another day. You look beautiful in everything, so finding something won’t be an issue.”
I frown. “The wedding?” I look to Portentia. “You’re going to Rose’s wedding?”
Cringing, she looks back and forth between my mother and me. “I thought everyone was okay with that?”
Mom gives me a hard look. “Of course we all are. Everyone wants you there. Isn’t that right, Alec?”
Portentia and Oliver and my whole family at Rose’s wedding. What a fucking disaster.
I force a smile. “Wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“Thank you,” Portentia whispers, pushing out of her chair.
When I watch her walk away, the pain from Savvy’s dishonesty still fresh, it’s like I’m twenty all over again, finding out that the woman I love has been sleeping with my brother.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
OLIVER
“I’ll take a mimosa, no OJ,” Rose tells the server.
She pulls out the chair across from me on the shaded patio of our favorite brunch place, and I flick my gaze up to her. “The rest of us call it champagne, Peony.”
“Eh. It’s more socially acceptable to drink it in the morning if you call it a mimosa.” She winks, all light and joy, like always. But for once I’m spinning too much for her lightness to lift me out of my gloom. “I thought we were going to meet at the house?”
“Yeah.” I swallow. My head’s still spinning. When I walked into the kitchen of that place I was forced to call home for almost two years, I was prepared to potentially run into Alec. But I wasn’t prepared to see him all cozy with Savannah in the living room. “You weren’t there, and I didn’t want to stay.”
“Right. I was going to meet you there. So I could show you my wedding dress? You know, the big white thing I’m going to wear for the most important day of my life? Any of this ringing a bell?”
“But when I got there, Alec was in the family room with Savvy, and I didn’t want to hang around.”
Her smile cranks up a few more watts. “You met Savvy!” She bites her bottom lip. “Did you see the ring? That one took me by surprise. Last I knew, she was Alec’s one that got away, and the next thing I know he’s telling Mom he has a serious girlfriend who will be with him at my wedding. And now they’re engaged? Can you believe Alec never ran it by Mom? I don’t mean to be a fiend for drama, but I kind of wish I could be a fly on the wall when he tells her. I feel like she’ll find a way to arrange some bride swap or something at the wedding and try to trick him into marrying Portentia.”
I take a big swallow of my coffee, but this fucking lump in my throat stays put. “I saw the ring.”
And I saw her bare legs and her discarded panties. I saw the way Alec was looking at her. And her panic at realizing who our father is.
“Isn’t she amazing? I mean, I haven’t spent that much time around her, but you know I have a sense for these things, and Alec has been crazy about her since the first night they met in Vegas. It all seems a little sudden, considering she was reluctant to make it official between them—probably because of the distance. Who can blame her? But now they’re getting married, and I wonder if she’s going to move to L.A. or if Alec and Marston will hand off management of the L.A. branch of the firm so Alec can move to Orchid Valley. If you ask me, that’s what he should do, but . . . Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Alec is engaged to Savvy, Rose. Savannah Downing.”
“Right. That’s what I’m saying.” She cocks her head to the side, studying me. “Did you know her or some—” Her eyes go wide, and I realize it’s clicking into place for her. “Holy shit. No way.”