Chapter 2 Chapter 1 (ii)
FAE
With all pairs of eyes heavy on us, Carl couldn’t hide his discomfort anymore.
They were our friends and familial ties, people who had lightly teased me about my feelings while he listened, watched, and gently tolerated. It shocked them when he announced his wedding to a woman they didn’t know, and later found out to be my bestfriend, the same day the wedding invitations arrived.
This wasn’t the only scandalous thing in the situation. None of Carl’s relatives came. They lived outside the country and the excuse was that the event was so sudden, there was no time for them to prepare.
Nonsense. It wouldn’t take a week for his grandparents to arrange a flight from London if they wanted to come. Nobody was fooled. Everybody knew the Eastons didn’t support this marriage. Sarah was an unknown slipped under the radar of his meticulous elders.
And that’s why I traveled at the last minute when I learned that not one relative would back him up. I thought, at least, as the Eastons had fostered me for a few years—when I was twelve until I turned eighteen and got control of the modest inheritance my father left me—that I was family.
But as I could see, my support was not welcome.
Well, damn. I would be loyal until the last second, I promised with a heavy heart. Even if it was the last thing I could do for him. I will stay until the last second. I stared at Sarah’s face and knew this was the only goodbye I was going to get. She had Carl wrapped around her little finger.
In the weeks since I found out they were dating, I really tried hard not to hate her.
But at that moment, as she stood there grinning like the cat that ate the canary, I felt the worst disgust I had ever felt.
All the time that we were friends, I never had a clue I was in competition until it was too late.
She was a snake.
And from now on, I would treat her like one.
As I fought her stare, Sarah wilted. Oh, she started to act like she was nervous, as if I came here with a plot to shame her in front of the guests. She knew she was the odd one out here. She was the college friend that mooched off of me in law school and got into Easton Law Firm through my recommendation—straight into Carl’s pants.
As I watched, she allowed her piteous mask to slid over her face, a beautiful, heart-shaped face with big, brown eyes. That’s how she got me. She used those big, brown eyes on me, told me she hadn’t eaten anything for two days after she fainted near my cubicle in the library. I was taken—hook, line and sinker.
“Fae, please. If you still have respect for our friendship and for Carl—”
The prickliest temper surged through me, finally snipping at the thin thread of my tolerance. “Oh, shut the fuck up. I’ll toast and drink the damn champagne for Carl,” I cut her off in an angry whisper. “Don’t worry, Sarah, I will behave—but only for him.”
As I looked at the uneasy look she shot at Carl who looked thoroughly spooked, I suddenly realized something.
Carl hadn’t known I was coming.
He didn’t expect I’d be here.
It’s because they didn’t send me an invitation.
My laugh of surprise was abrupt. Oh god, where was this clarity when I needed it the most. Now, it was too late. But It didn’t matter. I still needed it, only so this woman could not manipulate me again!
I smiled sweetly at poor Carl who was trying his best to recover and focused on Sarah instead. “Thanks for the wedding invitation, Sarah. The card is crass—bright pink? I knew you’d picked it the moment I slid it out the envelope, and because it needed a few grammar tweaks. Oh.” I daintily placed a hand to my bosom. “Or did you make a different one for me because I am not on the list of official guests? Carl’s assistant will never be caught making a grammar mistake. Kyla’s a ferocious grammar Nazi. Have you not let her check it?”
Carl’s confused question cut through the thick tension between me and his bride. “You sent her an invite?”
I didn’t feel any satisfaction when Sarah paled and choked as if she swallowed an oyster—with its shell. I was still seething at the confirmation—hurt that Carl didn’t actually wanted me to come.
It was too much. This was all just too much.
“You think marrying into money entitles you to manipulate us around, bitch?” I snapped at Sarah.
“Fae!” Carl angrily whispered to me. He looked confused and pained. “Please…?!”
And I turned into a balloon, punctured and losing air. I stared at him, my eyes gathering heat, my mouth gulping for air. I watched as Sarah raised eyes that rapidly streamed tears—and that vision repelled mine. Another overused trick. She used to raise those same pitiful eyes at me whenever she needed a saving hand.
Couldn’t Carl see this? She deliberately sent me an invitation against his knowledge to hurt me, and that was lying. He could tolerate that now?
Obviously, yes.
I felt whipped when Carl hugged Sarah to his side, as if he was protecting her from me. Those eyes… they were silently asking me about what I stood to gain from ruining his special day.
And I couldn’t… take… that.
I turned and walked away.
As the band on a corner dais continued to play wedding songs, sober guests stepped aside to make way for me while I ran from with my head down because I couldn’t bear to see faces. Seeing pity on them was the last thing I thought I came here for. I didn’t turn to look when I heard someone call my name as I passed.
I escaped.
But it would only be for a moment.
I would drink the stupid champagne because I promised. I would toast to their happiness as I must. I would punish myself because I deserved it.
But at that second, I needed to hide before my sobs started spilling from my beaten heart.