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One

She’d just witnessed a train wreck

Oh, no, not a literal one, Pia shook her head now at the wedding reception But a figurative one was just as bad

It was funny what a train wreck looked like from one end of a church aisle, with yards of ivory satin on display and the led scents of lilies and roses in the June air As a wedding planner, she’d dealt with plenty of disasters Groo dress Even, once, a ringbearer who’d sed one of the rings But surely Pia’s always-practical close friend would have no such probleht up until about two hours ago

Of course, the passengers in their pews had all been agape as the Marquess of Easterbridge had stridden purposely up the aisle and announced that, in fact, there was an objection to Belinda Wentworth hae to Colin Granville, current Marquess of Easterbridge, had never been annulled

Collectively, the cream of New York City society had blinked Eyes had widened and eyebrows had shot up in the pews of St Bart’s, but no one had been so gauche as to actually faint—or pretend to

And for that, Pia was grateful There was only soate the cake, or the cab splattered al husband, for God’s sake, decided to show up at the wedding!

Pia had sat frozen in her position off the center aisle Angels, she’d thought absently, were in short supply today

And on the heels of that thought had come another Oh, Belinda, why, oh, why didn’t you ever tellto, of all people, your family’s sworn enemy?

But in her gut, Pia had already knohy It was an act Belinda regretted Pia’s brow puckered, thinking of what Belinda was dealing with right now Belinda was one of her two closest friends in New York—along with Tamara Kincaid, one of Belinda’s bridesmaids

And then, Pia heaped some of the blame on herself Why hadn’t she spotted and intercepted Colin, like a good little wedding planner? Why hadn’t she stayed at the entrance to the church?

People would wonder why she, the bridal consultant, hadn’t known enough to keep the Marquess of Easterbridge away, or why she hadn’t been able to stop hi and Pia’s own professional reputation

Pia felt the urge to cry as she thought of the hit that her young business, Pia Luham nuptials—or more accurately now, alh-profile affair to date She’d only struck out on her own a little over two years ago, after a few years as an assistant in a large event planning company

Oh, this was horrendous A nightmare, really For Belinda and herself

She’d come to New York City froht after college This wasn’t the way her dream to make it in New York was supposed to end

As if in confirht after the bride and both her groom and her husband had disappeared at the church, presu in the aisle when a formidable society matron had steamed toward her

Mrs Knox had leaned close and said in a stage