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As I hoped, ers in his eyes, and I reach across the table to squeeze his hand “Really,” I say fir to be perfect, which is ironic considering that I’ve spentto escape from my mother’s plan to ret ood and dutiful daughter, I’ve finally co bitch—one who also happens to despise my boyfriend She made my childhood miserable, and while I a, there’s not a shrink in the world ouldn’t agree that the causative threads of that particular vice lead back to Elizabeth Fairchild and her various quirks and neuroses

“You’re not your mother,” Damien says firmly “And there isn’t a bride in the world who doesn’t want her wedding to be everything she’s dreamed of”

“And the groom?” I ask

“The groo as she says ‘I do’ And when he can call her Mrs Daet to the honeymoon”

I’ by the time he finishes “Thank you”

“For putting up with your wedding jitters?”

“For everything”

He stands and refillsyou need my help with today?”

“Nope”

“We’re getting married on Saturday,” he says, as if this was news to me, but the words ain “If you need Sylvia’s help, just ask,” he adds, referring to his supremely efficient assistant

I shake my head and flash hi is on track”

“You’ve taken on a lot,” he says “More than you had to”

I tilt my head, but stay silent This is a conversation we’ve had before, and I don’t intend to have it again

We’d traveled across Europe for a ested we simply do it Get married on a mountaintop or on the sands of the Côte d’Azur Return to the States as Mr and Mrs Damien Stark

I’d said no

I want nothing more than to be Damien’s wife, but the truth is that I also want the fairy-tale wedding I want to be the princess in white walking down the aisle in ree with my mother about much, but I reme I’d enviedthat she’d had her own demons to battle, and when she walked down the aisle on a pathway of rose petals, ht had been, So for me at the end of that aisle with love in his eyes

And it wasn’t justthat ure, and I knew that the press would be covering our wedding It didn’t need to be the fanciest affair—in fact, I wanted it outside on the beach—but I did want it to be a beautiful celebration And since I knew the paparazzi would be pulling out all the stops to get tacky pictures, I wanted a collection of portraits and candid shots that we controlled Fabulous pictures that we could give to the legiti—I hoped—whatever ended up in the tabloids

More than anything, though, I wanted the story and photographs to overshadow the horrible things printed just a few o, when Damien had been on trial for es in sharp counterpoint to, and in triumph over, the worst days