Chapter Forty-Three
FORTY-THREE
Hailey
BITE OR GET BITTEN
Victoria, Connecticut
The orange sun hangs low. Partygoers begin lighting sparklers. Little embers glow in the hands of kids as they race around the lawn waving the burning sticks.
I try not to look at any children.
I try not to think about the little flutters in my belly. Nerves, I tell myself. Just nerves. It’s not the baby moving. If I think too hard about my pregnancy, I start thinking about Oliver, then Jake, and I need to be here.
I cannot lose time. Not today.
It’s imperative I stay cognizant. Aware of my surroundings. And it’s not like my mission is a particularly elaborate one. I have one purpose tonight.
Avoid Trent Waterford…my husband.
It’s just a piece of paper, Hailey. It’s real in the sense that everyone believes it. It’s real in the sense that Hailey Thornhall is me. It’s real in the sense that Jake was truthfully hurt. I didn’t mean for him to see the proposal. It wasn’t part of my plan.
I’m sorry, Jake.
It’s fake in my heart. This marriage is fake.
I let the wind whip my flowy white Vera Wang dress and soothe my burning face. My hair is in tamed waves.
The Bennet estate resides on the highest hill in Victoria, overlooking the rest of town. It’s my first time here, and I love how the coastal breeze rushes stronger on this hill and brings cooler weather tonight.
People mingle at teak picnic tables, carrying plates of seafood and summer salads from the catered spread.
On a normal occasion, I’d be giddy with excitement, soaking up the Fourth of July party atmosphere with a lemonade and mini crab cake.
Phoebe and I would be chatting on the porch swing while fireworks shoot overhead.
But normal is not on the schedule for tonight.
For one: I have never been this popular at a party.
Ladies from town have stopped me too many times to count. Asked to see my ring. Prompted me for all the details on how Trent proposed and how our whirlwind romance began. I smile and give the talking points Trent and I agreed upon. Each time I recall the fake events, I have to stifle a gag.
Just when I think I can slip away, the younger crowd descends upon me near the arched pergolas on the lawn. Among the twentysomethings, I recognize Sidney Burke’s group of college friends and Chelsea Noknoi from VCC.
I hold out my hand when they ask to see the ring. “Hailey.” Chelsea gawks. “Is this the Grace Kelly engagement ring?”
“A replica,” I reply into a forced smile that I hope looks genuine enough. The Cartier ring has an emerald-cut diamond set in between two baguette-cut ones. “But exactly 10.47 karats like hers.”
“Trent is so romantic,” Rachel Rawlings says wistfully.
“We would have had a longer engagement, but he doesn’t want me to have to work at VCC anymore, and I need health insurance, so…” I flush and avert my eyes to the ground.
“I wouldn’t be ashamed of a quick marriage,” Rachel assures me. “Elopements are in.”
“I almost wish I did it,” Chelsea adds. “Wedding planning is so stressful. Giddeon and I still can’t decide on our caterer. Then you have to think about table settings, flowers—it goes on and on. You’re lucky to bypass the headache.”
The other girls voice their approval.
“But I will miss you at VCC,” Chelsea says and gives me a hug. My stomach sours uncomfortably. I don’t like lying to her. I don’t really love lying to anyone in this town. It had been nice being so honest somewhere.
“Are you moving to the Koning estate?” Valentina de la Vega asks.
I nod. “When the summer ends…or when Varrick Wolfe chooses an heir. Whichever comes first.”
“I heard Damian and Sandon might leave Stonehaven early. You know, after the rumors Varrick has narrowed it down to a Thornhall,” Valentina says. “Is that true?”
Val is an MBA grad student, and her family owns the paper. I always thought she’d make a terrific journalist. Sadness rushes through me. I might not see what becomes of her. “I know they haven’t been staying as often,” I mutter.
Rachel waves her hands in excitement. “Wait, wait. Who cares about that? What were Trent’s vows? Start from the beginning—”
“Hailey! There you are!” The booming voice belongs to my very best friend. Phoebe pushes through the throngs of girls. “Oh my gosh, finally, we need to talk. Sorry, everyone! I have a thing that I have to sort out and you know…” She’s already grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the group.
I can’t fight off my smile. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, I’m officially on errand duty.” She crinkles her nose. “How you like this role is beyond me.”
“Less pressure.”
“Less fun,” she refutes, swinging my arm like we’re skipping through a meadow. We share a smile.
The Bennets are known for their lilac plants.
Hundreds of purple flowers cascade from bushes and trees.
So unlike the meticulously trimmed hedges and rose garden of the Koning estate.
The overgrown lilac shrubs and the canopy of trees remind me of a fairy tale.
But I wonder if this is more Wizard of Oz than Cinderella.
Nothing feels real. Not even the glass slipper.
Phoebe draws me up toward the stone mansion. While I’m a principal on this job, Phoebe’s role is to make sure we’re all in the proper places at the right time. “I must say, Hails, you’re really killing it.” She speaks under her breath. “I don’t think I could’ve moved the timeline up this fast.”
I know what she’s implying.
Trent wasn’t supposed to propose and marry me on the same day. I’d planned for a short engagement that would at least last the rest of the summer.
“That was unexpected,” I whisper back. “I think Jake walking in on the proposal pushed Trent there.” I still can’t shake the look in Jake’s eyes. The real hurt. Real despair. Trent inhaled it like a noxious drug, and he couldn’t help himself from twisting the knife just a little more.
She bumps my shoulder with hers. “The proposal was all you.”
Once Trent believed I was as moldable as clay, he realized I’d be amenable to any arrangement he offered. He never really doubted that I wouldn’t want him. He thinks most girls in town would suck his dick for the pleasure of saying they did.
Rocky was right. He wasn’t hard to manipulate. Only difficult to make sure he doesn’t want me sexually.
Which…brings me back to how he believed I was clay.
The day before the proposal, Trent flipped through books in my bedroom at Stonehaven. He barged in, and I told Jake it was okay. To wait in the hall. “You’re an interesting creature, Hay-Hay.” He shut the novel hard. “How would you feel if I asked you to…I don’t know, fuck Oliver?”
I shrugged, trying not to gulp. “I wouldn’t mind.” I would very much mind.
“And if I watched? Because I do think he’s into you. My brother might be, too, but he’s blah.” He thought he was being flirty and cute. He was not. “You could do so much better.”
“Like…you?”
“Of course like me. We could be a team, you and I.” He curved his arm over my shoulders. “Rule the world.” He spun his hand across the air. That’s when he laid out our arrangement. How we could benefit from a marriage together.
I agreed.
After that conversation, I thought there might be a slim possibility he’d want to consummate the marriage…with Oliver in attendance.
I did not expect him to say, “I booked a room at the Harbor Hotel for tonight. I think you must be doing it all wrong.”
I got nervous. “Doing what wrong?”
He laughed, looked over at me in the car. He was behind the wheel. I was in the white designer dress he bought me, the one I’m wearing now. “I’m going to teach you how to fuck, Hay-Hay. You can thank me later.”
“I…” I was speechless. “Why do you think I’d need help having sex?”
“The way you kiss. Very bad. That needs help first. I might have Oliver assist there.”
Oh, okay, I thought.
“You’d like that?” he asked, as if he was doing me a favor.
I shrugged, my blood frozen over. I wouldn’t even call what Trent and I did at the courthouse a kiss. My lips hovered over his. He retracted like I was a moldy wall…one he needed to clean first, apparently. Then he planted a kiss on my cheek.
For show.
My head whirls with the memory. My bones ache with the longing for Oliver and for Jake. It rose minute by minute while I was there. And it rises minute by minute when I’m not with either of them here.
I wonder when it’ll engulf me.
The yearning.
Phoebe draws me close to a lilac tree. More secluded. She squeezes my hand like she can see I’m not all present. My mind…am I wandering?
I focus as Phoebe says, “Trent is high on his own supply tonight. Everyone wants to talk to him. I don’t think he’ll be looking for you until after the fireworks.”
That’s good.
That’s good.
“The wedding…” Her voice sputters out when I avert my gaze to the flowers.
No one knows what really happened. Trent drove me here to the Bennets’ party as soon as the marriage license was filed. I haven’t told her about the conversation in the car.
My throat dries. My lips feel wind chapped.
I shouldn’t be at this party.
I need to leave early, I think.
“Phoebe.” I turn.
She’s not…she’s not here anymore. My pulse spikes. Was she ever really with me? Did I hallucinate her? No. She held my hand. Phoebe was holding my hand. Now my hand is empty. Children giggle and race in front of me, sparklers crackling, the heat nipping me as embers drift into my skin.
The fireworks boom.
It’s too loud.
I blink, and Oliver is suddenly beside me.
His hair darker. He’s letting the natural color grow out.
Wind whips at his linen shirt while he pulls off a strand of lilacs.
He starts twisting the thorny stems together.
“You forgot your earplugs?” he asks conversationally, his gaze everywhere but on me.
I breathe easy with him next to me. “Yes.”
His playful smile inches upward. I wait for him to come behind me and cover my ears.
He doesn’t.
The job. Right. He can’t touch me. I’m married to Trent.
Or…what if…what if Oliver isn’t real? “Olly?” I jolt at a firework boom. When I look back, he’s closer beside me. “Are you real?”
His eyes snap down to me. Then he subtly surveys our surroundings before he slips a lilac behind my ear. His knuckles brush against my cheek.
Real.
He’s really here.
I’m overwhelmed. I almost burst into tears.
And I ache for his arms to wrap around me.
I want Oliver to pick me up. I want him to swing me around.
I want to go to bed with him and Jake, and I don’t want to be married to a man who won’t listen to what I have to say.
I want to be with men who never tire of listening and learning.
I want to be with men so curious, they could fill their hours picking my brain and they let me scour theirs.
I want to be with Oliver Graves.
I want to be with Jake Koning Waterford.
This is it, I remind myself. This will be the end of something awful and the start to something great.
“Hailstorm.” Oliver is bent to my height. He has a hand on my cheek. “Where’d she go?”
“I-I can’t be here, Olly.” I lick my lips and speak lowly. “He bought a hotel room for the night.”
He straightens up, looking around. “You eat something bad, Hails?” He reaches casually for his phone. “You might be coming down with food poisoning.”
Yes. “Food poisoning.” I nod. “Probably the crab cake.”
“The crab strikes again.”
“Will you tell Trent I feel sick?”
“And that you needed to leave early. Sure thing.” He winks, then smiles brightly at someone else. “Phoebe.”
“Hey?” Her brows scrunch, trying to make sense of me and him. He shouldn’t be hovering around me. That’s not part of the plan. He came to check on me, I realize. He saw I wasn’t okay. She’s carrying two cups of lemonade.
“Where have you been?” I ask her.
“You…you said you were thirsty.” She’s confused. “I told you I’d get us lemonade. Do you not remember?”
I shake my head rapidly.
“Okay, we’re leaving,” she says fast.
“It was the crab. I might puke.”
“Me too.” She gives Oliver one cup, then grabs my hand. My heart pounds in my eardrums.
Everything is happening so fast now. The sun has set. Sparkling reds pop into the sky and bathe the lawn in crimson.
My nerves ratchet up.
Time stops when I glance back at Oliver. As his glimmering eyes train on mine, as he mouths, The webs we weave.
Oh, the webs we weave…when we come together to deceive. An old Tinrock-Graves motto. Our history. One we’re keeping and remaking.
For a moment, I pretend this night has no beginning, middle, or end. It’s just now. And then I remember my older brother—and the pretending vanishes.
There’s no pause for Rocky. No real break or a moment to breathe.
Not when he has the hardest job of us all.