Chapter Four
FOUR WEEKS PASSED in the blink of an eye, and before Annie knew it, the wedding day arrived.
She hadn’t seen her fiancé since their dinner date in Sydney.
She hadn’t needed to. Photos of them had gone up online even as they’d been eating a meal, pretending to have a wonderful time, thus meeting his requirement that their engagement be public and known.
No doubt, Theo had had someone tip off the paparazzi.
It just made Annie glad that she’d forewarned her father.
Having lost her mother to a bad heart, she worried about the same with her father, despite the fact he was in excellent health.
Although Theo’s remarks had hinted at him being attracted to Annie, he’d dropped her at her hotel without so much as a suggestion of joining her. And she’d been glad for that, too. Not that she would have minded rejecting him.
Annie had left all of the wedding planning to Theo—or someone he hired. Had it been a real wedding, she would undoubtedly have wanted to weigh in on every single decision, but given that he had blackmailed her into this, she figured he could take on the stress of planning.
The only thing she’d done for herself was select the wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses.
For the latter, she’d chosen a pale yellow prom style, and for the former, an elegant off-white silk slip with a dropped back.
She wore three fine gold chains that dangled at different heights down her spine.
She looked like she was going to a fancy party, rather than a wedding, and though she had conceded to the wearing of her mother’s veil, she refused to let it cover her face like a bridal innocent—she was going into this with her eyes wide open.
No need to pretend otherwise. Her glossy dark hair had been styled into voluminous curls that hung around her face, and her fingers were painted a simple nude.
On her feet, she wore black stilettos—a striking contrast to the dress—and her lips were painted a deep red.
She revelled in bucking the traditional bride model. This wasn’t a traditional wedding.
Perhaps on some level it was because she wanted to save the real bridal gown and look for one day, if and when she were to marry for real.
After all, in eighteen months or less she’d be free of Theo, and one day, surely, she’d meet someone special.
Someone she might love, who would love her back, like she’d once upon a time thought Theo did.
She’d chosen two school friends to act as bridesmaids, though she hadn’t felt close to them for a long time. Theo had organised a large wedding, so what choice did she have? She hadn’t asked who he was having as groomsmen; she hadn’t wanted to show interest in his life.
‘Are you ready, my love?’ her father, misty-eyed, asked as he poked his head around the door to her room in the luxurious Athens hotel suite Theo had booked out for the bridal party.
Annie stared at her reflection, drawing in a deep breath. Was she ready?
Not really.
And yet, at the same time, she just wanted to get this over with.
The sooner they were married, the sooner Theo’s money would flow into the company, and they could start focusing on how to rebuild it.
Instead of a honeymoon, they’d have a corporate merger.
Relief twisted inside Annie, even as butterflies overtook every part of her body.
‘Darling?’
She blinked her gaze sideways to where her father stood, a hint of concern on his handsome face.
‘Yes.’ She forced a bright smile. ‘I’m ready. Let’s go.’
‘Annie.’ Her father hesitated, though. ‘If you have any doubts, you can back out.’
Annie’s heart thumped.
‘You say you’re happy, that this is what you want, but you look as though you’re on the way to the executioner.’
Damn it. She had been brooding. She forced a bright smile. ‘I’m nervous—isn’t that normal for a wedding?’
‘Not my wedding,’ her father said, shaking his head. ‘Marrying your mother was the happiest day of my life. I would do it a thousand times over if I could.’
Emotions threatened to topple Annie’s determination. She ran her fingers over her veil, thinking of her mother, drawing strength from her even when she wasn’t there. This was necessary, and marrying Theo would be the answer to all their problems; she had to do it. ‘I’m getting married.’
‘But today, and to him? Why not wait awhile. Meet some other men. You’ve barely dated—’
‘No, Dad. No. It’s Theo, or no one.’ That was true, though not for the reasons her father might have supposed.
‘Your mother would have hated this,’ he said, and with such sadness and disapproval in his tone that Annie’s heart splintered apart.
She didn’t want to disappoint her father, but this was the only way she could save the business.
She dropped her hand from the veil, hoping he was wrong, hoping that Elizabeth Langley would have understood.
‘I hope not,’ Annie said.
Her father just grunted, shook his head, so Annie said, ‘Are you going to be able to walk me down the aisle? Because I’ll go alone, if I need to.’
She could see her father was actually contemplating that, which gave a good insight into how much he was against the wedding.
‘Come on, Dad,’ she cajoled. ‘It’s just a quick ceremony, and then it will be all over.’ Or just beginning, for Annie. But to her relief, her father put his hand on her forearm to lead her deeper into the suite.
When they stepped into the main room of the suite, Angela and Maria stopped talking and came to Annie, hugging her. It all felt so performative, though. Annie would never have chosen this for her real wedding day, but that didn’t matter because this was just a performance.
It was part of what Theo required, and she’d go along with it, purely to get what she wanted: help with the business.
The wedding itself was to take place in the hotel ballroom. They rode down the lift as a group, and then walked through the corridor to a large set of double doors. Several staff members stood there in suits, and a woman with an earpiece and clipboard nodded her approval when Annie appeared.
‘Right on time, excellent. Are you ready?’
Annie nodded.
‘Good. Bridesmaids, here, and here.’ She pointed to the carpet near the door, then turned back to Annie. ‘I’ll tell you when to go.’
Annie turned to her father, then slid her hand into the crook of his arm.
He looked grey beneath his tan and a pang of remorse filtered through her.
She’d do anything to spare him this pain, only it was the lesser of two evils.
Allowing the company to become bankrupt would utterly destroy him. She couldn’t do it.
The doors opened and there was a huge amount of noise as the assembled guests—goodness, there must have been four hundred people, at least—stood as one, like a tide rising, and turned to face the door.
A familiar classical song filtered through to them, and then, Angela and Maria began to walk down the aisle.
They obstructed Annie’s view of Theo, so it wasn’t until they were almost at the front of the assembled guests that she saw him, flanked on one side by two men in dark suits.
But she barely looked at them, except to see if they were familiar—they weren’t.
Her eyes were trapped by Theo, locked to him in a way that made her whole body tingle.
He wore a jet black tuxedo, with his dark hair brushed back from his brow, and his face was hawk-like—studying her, perhaps wondering if she was going to bolt. Not likely.
She straightened her spine, squeezed her dad’s hand, and then, began to walk, slowly, as though she were enjoying it, down the aisle, even managing to shape her bright red lips into a curve, as though she were genuinely jubilant to be there. Wasn’t that the point? To sell this as a love match?
But the closer they got to Theo, the more her heart started to ram against her ribs, the more her knees felt trembly and her pulse weak, so that by the time they came to him, she was barely aware of the way her father’s body had grown tense and rigid.
‘Elliot,’ Theo said, voice gruff, eyes glinting with something that Annie knew to be triumph.
He reached out and took Annie’s hand from her father’s, a symbol of his removing an object deeply valued, so she wanted to shake his touch off her—but she didn’t.
She was playing a role. She did, however, turn to her dad and kiss his cheek, and say, ‘I love you, Daddy,’ smiling at him encouragingly.
The older man’s eyes slid to Theo’s, and for a second, Annie wondered if he was going to say something.
As far as she knew, this was the first time they’d come face-to-face since the conversation Theo had only recently enlightened her to having taken place, three or so years earlier.
He didn’t, though. A moment later, Elliot Langley turned and walked to his seat at the front of the audience.
Annie moved closer to Theo, and then, staring at him, her heart almost gave out, because this felt so close to what she’d fantasised about, so often, she couldn’t believe it was happening—and like this.
He leaned closer to her, and murmured in her ear, ‘You look beautiful.’
It was the last thing she’d expected him to say. Kind and flattering—she hadn’t thought him capable any longer.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
He pulled his head back, turned to the celebrant, and nodded.
‘Dearly beloved…’ Annie tried not to think about the wedding beyond being a scripted event.
She didn’t want to think about what would come next, about the night ahead, about the next eighteen months.
She repeated the lines as required, smiled, and almost went into a form of stasis.
But when Theo lifted her hand to slide the wedding ring in place, his touch was electric, shocking her out of the almost sedated state she’d fallen into.
And then, of course, came the kiss.