"Okay," Olivia answered, holding her breath for the worst part she was sure would come next. "So…?" she pressed when he didn’t speak.
He frowned. "So, we’ll have to wait at least six weeks before we get this straightened out," he repeated.
Olivia blinked, still waiting for him to drop the big bomb. When he said nothing else, she asked, "Why did you say shit?"
"Because," he growled. "We can’t get it done today, or even Monday."
"And?" she prompted.
He shook his head. "And what? There’s nothing else. We’ll have to wait."
Olivia frowned. "Is that all?" she demanded.
His frown turned annoyed. "What do you mean, ‘is that all’? It’ll take time. There’s paperwork, and handling fees, and waiting periods."
But Olivia didn’t care. "As long as my mother doesn’t find out we’re married in that time, we’re safe."
Cameron eyed at her strangely. "What’d you say her name was again?"
She sighed and pressed a hand to her suddenly aching head. "Vivian Helbrock-Donovan-Roark."
Sucking the side of his cheek in between his teeth with a thoughtful expression, Cameron shook his head. "I can’t place the name. I seriously don’t think I’ve ever met her."
"Then you probably haven’t. If you’d ever run across her, you’d
remember it. She’s not a forgettable woman."
"Okay, so I’ve never met her, yet she wants me to marry her daughter?" Cameron shook his head. "I don’t—you honestly can’t think I believe that?"
Tired of trying to help him comprehend something she didn’t fully understand herself, Olivia stood and glanced at his cell phone. "It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re going to get us annulled, and in six weeks this’ll all be over. May I borrow your phone to give her a call and see if she’s still at the hotel? As mad as she’ll be about me skipping out on her last night, she’ll probably try to leave me in Las Vegas."
~ ~
Cameron’s jaw dropped. "Your mother’s trying to sell you off to some man she’s never met—and you want to go back to her?"
Olivia looked at him sharply. He could tell she didn’t like him dragging the truth right out into the open. But, tough. He wanted answers.
She stood unmoving and stiff. "I don’t have anyone else to call," she admitted from reluctant, unmoving lips.
He frowned. "What about your dad?"
She snorted. "Trust me, if he was alive, he’d be just as bad as her."
That answer caught him off guard. Experiencing a pang of sympathy he wasn’t prepared to feel for this mouthy little Twinkie, Cameron paused. He wondered if he should express condolences. Her father might’ve passed away recently.
Fearing he’d only make her cry again if he told her he was sorry for her loss, he was about to give up interrogating her when he remembered what his pursuit was all about. The woman had just spent a good twenty minutes telling him how awful her mom was. And here, she was the first person his wife wanted to call. It punched all sorts of holes in the very foundation of the already-shaky story she’d just fed him.
"And you have no other family?" he asked. "Friends?"
For a moment, she looked very alone. He suddenly wanted to reach out and tell her—what? There was nothing he could do for her if she wanted to hightail it back to her mom.
"There’s no one," she bit out from between clenched teeth.
"Lady, you are unbelievable." He shook his head sadly. "You just sat there and convinced me your mom was Satan incognito and now you want to go back to her? I’m sorry, but I don’t get it."
"You don’t have to get it. You don’t know me or my mother, okay? You don’t know what she’s capable of—"
"And yet you want to crawl right back into her clutches?"
"Look, I tried to rebel and failed, okay? I’m just not cut out for a life of defiance."
"Defiance?" he sputtered. "Just how old are you? Twelve? Since when have grown women reverted back to the dark ages and let their parents
control their lives?"
Her scowl told him he’d hit a nerve. But her calm words said, "It’s safer this way. Trust me. I—"
"Oh, well, now you’re freaking me out," Cameron said, feeling a cold chill of dread race down his spine. The woman wasn’t scared of her mother, was she? "What exactly is she going to do to you, Olivia? Because if you seriously think she’ll hurt you—"