Chapter Two
Chapter Two
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Hadley
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With her nails still digging into my arms, Mrs. Neal lays out her very diabolical plan, and I’m at the center of it all.
“Now my daughter is strong. She’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, not so much.”
Oh great, they’re going to sue me. Just fantastic. My first time as a wedding event planner, and it’s over before it began. Aunt Heather, as sweet as she is, is probably going to kill me for ruining her very carefully curated reputation. Really, I’m screwed all ways.
“If...” Mrs. Neal continues, “If you don’t want me to sue you to oblivion for nearly killing my daughter, you better do as I say.”
“But she signed the allergy form.” Surely that would stand up in court. She’s going to take me for all I have. Well, take a ticket, Mrs. Neal. Before I get to her, I have to pay off Jimmy Big Back and Mars Florentine. Both deadly gangster guys I inherited from my dad.
After my mom died, my dad created a very extraordinary kind of debt. Yes, he got in with the sharks. Loan after loan to keep his pet project floating. A high-end restaurant on a yacht, no less. And when he passed away, that debt became mine.
Also, it’s not like I have my life together either. I still don’t know what I want to be. Between half a business degree and half a culinary course, I still don’t know if I want to be a chef or a full-time book reviewer.
“Do you know who I am?” Mrs. Neal asks with such a deathly threat that I nod yes in reply. Clearly, she’s just not the mother of the bride as I thought previously. She’s much worse.
“I’m going to say this once and only once. You will help me get my daughter out of her wedding dress. You will then put the wedding dress on, go down to the ballroom, and marry those men.”
I start to laugh, then I swallow instead when I realize the woman is serious.
“But... I look nothing like Tatiana,” I squeal. Really? That’s what I came up with as a rebuttal to her insane plan? Still, we might be around the same height and weight, maybe, but in another universe I’m her ugly, ugly, ugly stepsister.
“Of course I know that. My daughter is the most beautiful girl in the world. That’s why she’s marrying the heirs of Skycrest, you stupid girl.”
“Of course,” I say meekly.
“Pay attention. This is what you’re going to do. You will keep your veil on at all times. I’ll insist the marriage license be signed in Italy so all you have to do is show up for the formalities.”
I mean, if Tatiana did the same and kept her veil on...
“You’re just a body double for her ring since my daughter cannot show up to her wedding, looking like that.”
Yes, I see that now. Tatiana’s hands are monstrous on their own as she frantically moans a lot of harsh, incoherent sounds. She kicks off her shoes, and oh heck, even her toes are swelling. This is just fabulous. No, not in the least.
And I’m sure I’m not actually hearing what I think I’m hearing; surely not.
“But what about the kiss the bride part?” I squeak out my second question. Also, what the hell? Why am I entertaining this? Because Mrs. Neal is freaking terrifying.
“Oh, you stupid girl. This is a marriage of convenience, not stupid fools falling in love. Tatiana doesn’t love them and they don’t love her.
It’s simple. Rich people run their families like empires.
A union between the Neal empire and the heirs of Skycrest will be the strongest, most prestigious alliance of all time. Of all time.
“So to answer your question, you will politely and shyly decline.
That will be the end of it. You will feign a headache, then come back here.
I will let them know Tatiana is looking forward to seeing them at their villa in Sardinia in a few days' time for their honeymoon. By that time, Tatiana should be back to normal.”
The older woman opens her purse which costs more than one month’s rent for my apartment, which I can’t downgrade anymore, or I’ll be living on the street, and pulls out her phone.
Yes, my life is an insane mess right now, but thanks to Aunt Heather who offered me this job which would put me partially back in the black again with both Jimmy and Mars. Still a very long way to go, but I’m buying time and that’s as good.
Just my luck, the bride is probably allergic to champagne or chocolate, or what if it’s my perfume? I self-consciously sniff myself and sigh in relief. Yup, forgot perfume this morning, as all I can smell on me is my soap and roll-on.
I’m brought back to the situation at hand when Mrs. Neal hands me her phone.
“Your banking details. Be quick about it.”
“What?”
“For heaven’s sake your banking details, girl,” Mrs. Neal barks.
I jump to attention, withdrawing my own phone for the details before I hand Mrs. Neal’s phone back to her.
“For your cooperation and your silence. And make no mistake, Ms. Young, if this ever gets out, you won’t live long enough to say ‘whoopsie’ one more time.”
Right. I won’t be using the word "whoopsie" anymore; that’s for sure.
Struck dumb, I read the notification on my phone—I didn’t have a choice; the woman would have rammed her phone down my throat otherwise—and stare in mute confusion at the strong string of zeroes attached to the number one in the front.
“I can’t take this,” I say in a daze and stupidly hand her my phone as if that’s how it works.
“I don’t remember giving you a choice. I gave you an instruction. You do not have a choice to refuse me. Trust me, I can be very ugly when my family’s name is at stake.”
Okay. So there’s no reasoning with this woman.
I would have stood in for Tatiana for free, but...
this could save my entire life. I can pay off Jimmy and Mars every last cent my dad took from them.
The relief of not having two dangerous gangsters busting up my door at odd hours is so huge I can almost taste my freedom.
I'd still have so much money left over I could do anything I wanted. I’ll be rich.
But it’s wrong.
“You don’t have to pay me...”
“I’m not paying you for your service. I’m paying you for your silence. Do I have to say that with pictures, as if you’re five years old?”
So I don’t have a choice...
“Do you understand the power Tatiana will have as the bride of the collective heirs of Skycrest? And when she bears their children, that power will just increase exponentially. She’ll be the most envied, most powerful woman in the world and she answers to me. Don’t fuck this up.”
Yes, I’m stuck between Mrs. Neal and Mrs. Neal. The woman is already shouting at me to help her divest her daughter of the most exquisite gown I’ve ever seen. Then she instructs me to be ready by the time she gets back.
How can this be happening to me?