Page 36 of Hell Hath No Fury

“So, tonight is good for R&R?”

“R&R?” Lilith responds from her side of the table. “How can we think about R&R when there are definitely people who need to be killed?”

Antoinette laughs, giving her mother an affectionate look as she responds, “There’ll be plenty of time for killing later, Mother.”

Lilith glares at her, slapping her hand down on the table. “Don’t you ‘Mother’ me.”

Antoinette grins, and it’s nice to see a little sparkle in her eyes as she retorts rather haughtily, “Mother.”

Lilith continues to glare at her, but her lips twitch, and soon, I feel a smile blooming on my own face—a smile that I quickly school as Carolina whispers, “Oh, he’s got it bad.”

I narrow my eyes in her direction. “Now, don’t you start.”

She smiles, her eyes moving to Agatha. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Just a nice, simple dinner. Maybe some flowers? Champagne?”

Carolina bounces in her chair in excitement, and once again, I find myself smiling, her energy contagious. It’s rather shocking that a grumpy asshole like Tony would end up with such a lovely woman. My smile broadens, remembering the first time I met her, and I pat myself on the back for engineering the final push that got them together.

Suddenly, Agatha curses under her breath. When I look at her, she’s staring at Antoinette with wide eyes, and then she yells, “Antoinette.” Again, Antoinette looks at her with eyebrows raised until, after a moment, Agatha says testily, “I have a question.”

Antoinette sighs and then says, “Well, ask away then.”

Agatha looks at Antoinette and then at Darius and back again, and my gaze jumps between the three of them until, finally, Agatha asks loudly, “What do you mean your last name is fucking Hughes?”

Antoinette’s eyes widen rather comically, her expression becoming an odd mix of a grimace and a smile as she shrugs and Agatha glares at her. “Don’t you shrug at me. Are you or are you not a Hughes?”

Antoinette looks over at Darius, whose grin is outright smug. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag, huh, baby girl?”

Her cheeks flush, and her hands cover her mouth as she giggles, and then Lilith is on her feet, her hands pressed on the table, as she leans over it. “Are you saying the two of you got married without telling anyone?”

I sit back in my chair, highly amused, watching everyone going into various stages of a tizzy. Even Matt and Tony look a bit disgruntled, and everyone starts volleying questions at once. After a moment, they settle down, and Antoinette puts her hands up, sitting there until everyone is quiet. Then she slowly lowers her arms and responds, “Yes, we did. But it’s not a big deal.”

“When the fuck did this happen?” Agatha snaps. “The two of you just decided to sneak off and tie the knot without even giving us the option of a party?”

“You don’t even like fucking parties,” Antoinette retorts snarkily.

“This is different,” Agatha snipes, her arms crossing over her chest rather sullenly.

Lilith plops down in her chair, mirroring Agatha’s sullen expression and position. Then she mutters, “If I was ever going to get any big fanfare, I would have thought it’d be you two. Everyone else around here just gets hitched on the fly—no fanfare, no outlandish celebration.”

Antoinette is staring at her mother as if she’s got two heads. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

Lilith gives her a sour look and then sighs. “A little bit. I mean, you really were my only hope.”

“Hey,” Agatha responds as if offended. “What about me? I still remain unwed.”

Lilith gives her a look and then rolls her eyes. “Oh, please. You’ll most likely end up in some MMMMM, however many fucking M’s, why-choose situation.”

Carolina cackles and reaches over in front of me to poke Agatha. “That sounds like you.”

Agatha glares across the room, her arms that are still crossed over her chest tightening up. “Well, that seems like an excessive number of M’s. Even I’m not that ambitious.”

“Well, we never know. Every time I turn around, there’s another M in the picture.”

Agatha snorts at Lilith and waves her hand around as she responds, “Pretty sure there’s typically only two. Maybe three, depending on what country I’m in.”

Camilla giggles from across the table and then leans forward as she says, “That sounds very exciting. I think we need to have a girl’s day.”

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