Page 81 of Single Mom's Christmas Wish

His footsteps rush across the marble floor.

“He… He’s… He’s with her!” I cry out, finally coming apart at the seams as I collapse in Archer’s arms.

“What are you talking about?”

He holds me close, desperate to comfort me, but he simply doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t understand what’s happened. All I can do is hold on to his strong arms. I hold on for dear life and look up at him, my eyes stinging and watering incessantly.

“He’s with Callie.”

As soon as the words come out of my mouth, Archer understands.

30

Dakota

The preacher is still waiting inside the wedding hall as are the kids, Chelsea, Donna, and the handful of guests we invited. Chelsea is in charge of keeping everyone calm while Archer tries to help me figure everything out. Maddox is upstairs, and I can hear his voice booming throughout the entire top floor, interspersed with vague and muffled replies from Callie.

Archer and I sit on the base of the steps, leaning into one another, waiting.

I’ve been crying for ten minutes straight. My makeup must be ruined by now, and I wonder if it even matters anymore.

My thoughts are firing like a pinball machine as I struggle to put them in order, to make some sense out of what I saw and of what is going to happen next. But I have yet to find a way forward. I’m stuck.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Archer says, as if reading my mind.

“I know what I saw,” I bluntly reply.

“I’m not doubting you; I simply refuse to believe that he did that willingly,” he says. “I believe you, Dakota, I do. What I don’t believe is that what you saw is what actually happened.”

Confused, I stare at him for a long moment. “What do you mean?”

“Go on, tell them!” Maddox growls as he forcibly escorts Callie down the stairs in a most unceremonious fashion. “Tell them.”

“Let go of me, you brute!” Callie snaps back.

Her hair is a curly, fiery mess. Her lipstick is smudged. Her dress is crooked and slightly crumpled, while her deep cleavage shows a tad more skin than it should. Maddox must’ve pried her off of Reed with no concern for how it might look to anyone else.

Archer helps me stand and keeps me close, one arm protectively around my waist as we turn to face Maddox and Callie.

“I don’t understand,” I say. “Tell us what?”

“The fucking truth,” Maddox snaps, glowering at Callie. “Or else, I swear to God, I will beat it out of you in this very church.”

“Maddox, maybe—” Archer tries to intervene, but the fury in his brother’s gaze, the tremor in his voice is enough to hold him back.

“No. She talks, or I make her talk.”

Fear flashes in Callie’s eyes. Shaking like a leaf, she is becoming aware that she may have waded into far more dangerous waters than she had expected. But it’s not the look on her face that has me feeling uneasy. It’s Reed’s absence.

“Where’s Reed?” I ask them.

“Tell her!” Maddox snarls at Callie.

She startles and tries to pull away, but his grip on her arm is tight, his fingers digging into her reddening skin. “Ouch, you’re hurting me!”

“I haven’t even started to hurt you yet,” he hisses.

“Callie, now’s the time to save your ass,” Archer sighs. “What’s going on here? Where’s our brother?”

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