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My ear "Is he okay? What--"

"He’s fine" Desmond let his hand drop "He’s in Louisiana"

Murh the roo all at once should have been deafening, but all I could hear was the throb of blood behind my ears and the slow, broken sound of my own heart

"Louisiana?"

He rested one hand on esture that would have once made me feel safe and comforted "Your uncle called this afternoon Sootiation about the borderlands"

"But…we settled that"

"Not according to Callu , and instead of telling my uncle to wait twenty-four hours, he ran off without so much as a word?"

"I wouldn’t have known except Doht Lucas had sent Morgan to tell you"

I looked at the guests The ones eren’t gossiping stared back with silent, apologetic half-s for the inevitable meltdown

Desht fall apart if he letto accept it

Desmond shook his head "No"

I opened my mouth to speak, but quite unbidden, a sob cah it off, another followed quickly behind it The bouquet fell froht htly The familiar smell of him so close to my face should have comforted me, but instead it reminded me of all I had lost

I’d chosen Lucas because he neededand unified ere But he’d told ht he had proven it I’d done everything I could to de away the man I loved most in the world, and when push came to shove, Lucas had chosen a land dispute over me

Sob after sob rackedsounds offor air

Today was supposed to be about a new beginning About the life Lucas and I were going to have Instead I was in the arain be mine, and the man who claiht while the girls hovered around He hispering things that should have been soothing, but every as a reminder of the two of us His warmth and scent were traces of the life we’d had before Lucas had screwed everything up with the mate bond and the very public proposal

He’d made it clear he wouldn’t play second fiddle to Desmond

He’d won

And I’d lost it all

As far as bad-to-worse situations go, it doesn’t getthe love of your life tell you you’re being stood up on your wedding day

Or so I thought

Chapter Forty-Four

They say it’s bad for and change it a little to add it’s the worst for day

My saying wasn’t as well-known, though That an didn’t knoas poor forive a shit

As Kiuests out of the ballroom, I looked up to see one of the uide Morgan from the room

I hadn’t had ti Morgan to be the one who broke the news to ue with Ewan, the revelation ca to be stood up, and she hadn’t told me But why?

"No" She jerked her arm away from Ewan and shoved hih-pitched, edging on crazy Guess she couldn’t let me be the only dra plan" This time she pointed at Desmond

I was too muddled and too broken to really pay attention to her, until I heard Mercedes say, "What does she think she’s doing?"

Morgan had clambered up onto one of the chairs, out of Ewan’s reach My first thought was, Why is she cli on the furniture? But that was quickly pushed aside to un at me?