Page 25 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 4

“I-I w-was b-back in that car…”

“Okay. I know that was a super scary time,” I said softly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“He had a gun on me and Auntie,” she whispered squeezing her eyes shut.

“Can I lay down with you?” I asked, needing to be closer to her, but knowing it had to be her choice.

She eased the covers back in invitation.

I crawled in and pulled her into my arms. “Tell me everything that is scaring you.”

“Will you tell my dad?” she whispered.

“Not if you don’t want me to,” I said automatically, but it was a big fat lie. If I had to involve Rhodes in something harming his daughter, I’d take the hit to our relationship in order to ensure she received the help she needed. It was the lesser evil.

She told me her dream. It was terrifying and with each new revelation, I held her tighter. Eventually, she talked herself back to sleep.

Not willing to leave her, I closed my eyes. It felt like only a minute of sleep but was probably hours, before the door to Emily’s room flew open, the handle hitting the wall with a loud bang.

I sat up, instantly awake, and put myself in front of Emily who’d also heard the sound and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Who the fuck are you and why are you in bed with my daughter?” screamed an angry, gorgeous blonde woman dressed in a skintight dress and stilettos.

“Mom?” Emily croaked, white as a ghost with tears streaming down her cheeks. “What are you doing here?”

Episode 94

Winter Weddings & Funerals - Part 1

SUMMER

“Sunny, quit fidgeting,” my mother scolded as she zipped up the back of the dress I hoped I’d be marrying Jack in tonight. Provided he didn’t think my idea was insane.

Planning to pair a wedding with what could technically be considered a funeral, wasn’t exactly a normal person’s idea for the perfect time to trade nuptials. Good thing I’d never been considered normal.

Autumn swiped blush on my cheeks as I glared at my mother in the mirror.

“The dress wasn’t altered,” I sighed. “We didn’t have time.” I groaned as I stared at myself in the dress I’d chosen back in California. We’d purchased it for the wedding we were planning on our property but when we got the call about Ellen, all that changed, and we jetted to Norway.

I scowled at the image I presented in the mirror.

Something just didn’t feel right.

“Maybe if you suck it in? Inhale really big and then Mom can yank it up,” Autumn suggested.

I shook my head and shucked off Mom’s prying hands.

“Just stop!” I snapped. “We can’t make all of this”—I gestured to my ample curves—“fit into a dress a full size toosmall. It’s just not going to work. I’ll be miserable.” Not that I wasn’t miserable right then. “Maybe this was a bad idea…” I hedged, second guessing everything.

“I mean, who really wants to get married at a funeral, right? It was a stupid idea anyway.” I sniffed, shoving the emotions way down as I realized how, once again, I’d bulldozed forward on one of my wild, harebrained ideas without truly thinking it all through.

“Well, there is one other option,” Mom volunteered with a sly smirk.

“And that would be?” I flopped into the chair in my parents’ room. “Jack and TJ will be waiting in the lobby for all of us in less than a half hour.

I watched as Mom entered the closet in the palatial room. A few seconds later, she exited with something I had not expected to see in a million years.

Her wedding gown.

---