“Lemon?” My mother came up the stairs. “What on earth are you still doing in bed? Your rehearsal dinner is in two hours. The caterers will be here any minute. You need to start getting ready! Oh, and don’t forget that Miss Lydia is bringing your dress by in the morning to do any last-minute alterations before the wedding. Get a move on, darlin’!”
She left before I could respond. I wanted to tell her what had happened and crawl into her lap like when I was a little girl so she could fix everything.
But there was no fixing this.
I got up and started to get ready, because if I stayed in bed, if I started crying, then I would have to explain everything. I had at least a week or so before the end of the show would air, and that would give me some time to pull myself together so that I could tell them what had happened.
And hopefully get through the evening without sobbing hysterically.
One of the thoughts that had occurred to me on my plane ride home was, “Thank heavens I still have Sterling. I can still get married.”
Only that didn’t seem fair. To him or to me. I couldn’t treat Sterling like some kind of back-up husband. He deserved to be with a woman who loved him the way that I had loved Dante, before he had taken my heart and thrown it in a blender.
I didn’t want to settle. Not for a lying, cheating prince, and not for a man I didn’t really love.
Even if I wasn’t going to be with Dante, I wasn’t going to marry Sterling. It was over.
My timing sucked, and it made me feel sicker than a dog with tick fever. It was terrible of me to be doing this, but I would get through this dinner, and at some point tonight I would pull him aside and tell him that we wouldn’t be getting married tomorrow.
I would have to pay my parents back for all the money they’d spent on this wedding. I’d have to return the gifts, write apologies—it was all going to be overwhelming. I was also going to have to shut down my business. Matthew Burdette would make sure of that. Everything I had worked so hard for was just gone. I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut, afraid I might start crying again. But I had so dehydrated myself over the last two days that there were no more tears.
All I had to do was get through tonight, and deal with everything else tomorrow.
I put my face on, and then the ivory sheath dress with a silver lace overlay that I had so excitedly picked out weeks ago for this night.
The doorbell rang, and I could hear voices downstairs. My family, Sterling’s family, close friends, so many people were there to celebrate.
I came downstairs with a smile glued to my face. I said hello and hugged people and pretended like everything was fine.
And hoped that no one could see how devastated I truly was.
Sterling came in, and I had thought that there might have been something—a moment, a spark, anything. But there wasn’t. I knew then that I had made the absolute right choice in letting him go.
He came to greet me, and I offered him my cheek. I didn’t like the reminder of Dante, but I didn’t want him to kiss me, either. He didn’t seem to notice. “Lemon! I haven’t seen you in so long!”
I thought, And whose fault is that?
He studied me for a moment. “You look tired.” They should really give boys in high school a class entitled, “Things You Should Never Say to a Woman.”
“You look like you’ve got some lines around your eyes. Although, I suppose that’s what plastic surgery’s for, right?” He actually laughed. Kat was right. He was a jerk. How did I not see that before?
“What if I get fat? Is that what plastic surgery’s for, too?” He seemed a little bit surprised by the venom in my voice.
“Don’t be silly. That’s what diets and exercise are for. Excuse me a second, but I need to go thank your parents for hosting this evening.” He walked away.
Dante had at least said he would love me despite those things. Dante. A sharp pain pierced my heart. How could I be thinking of him right then? He didn’t deserve it.
Ellis Wetherly sauntered in the front door carrying a bottle of wine. I just got cheated on again, and the woman who helped the very first guy to ever cheat on me was in my house. That white-hot rage roared to life inside me, and my gaze flicked over to the antique candlesticks on my right. She was lucky I was more scared of getting blood on my mother’s hardwood floor than I was angry.
It had been six years since she’d screwed me over, and I still disliked her just as much as I had back then. “Lemon, honey. How are you?”
She hugged me, but I didn’t return her greeting. “What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you know?” She gave me a puzzled look, but I could tell she knew exactly what she was doing and how much she enjoyed doing it. “I work at Sterling’s daddy’s law firm as an associate.”