Page 52 of Fighting Happily Ever After

“You?” Her face twisted. The sadness was gone, replaced by anger and what could only be described as disgust. “You think I deserve someone like you, because you’re such a perfect boyfriend to Faith? Because you love and adore her and the two of you are absolutely perfect? That’s what you would have me believe?”

Her words were laced with venom and even before looking to see Faith’s expression, Logan knew that Stephanie knew the truth. Or at least, she thought she did. But she didn’t know the whole truth.

Not even close.

Faith shook her head, just a little. No doubt to stop him from what she thought he was about to say. But he wasn’t going to be stopped. Not now.

“No.” Logan shook his head. “Not a man like me. You deserve better than me.” He looked at Faith and held her eyes. “You both do.”

“Drop it, Logan.” Stephanie’s normally sweet, soft voice was hard and pointed. “I already know the truth,” she continued. “Faith came clean. You’re both liars. I know that now.”

She knew?

One look at Faith, who gave him a quick nod, confirmed it.

“Well then,” Logan turned back to Steph, “that just proves my point. You deserve better than a man who doesn’t put you first. Who doesn’t put you and your needs above everything else. You deserve someone who isn’t just interested in the optics of a wedding or the media attention he can get for it.”

“Wait a minute.” Dax, who’d remained remarkably quiet up until now, stepped forward and pushed himself between Logan and his bride-to-be. “Who the fuck do you think you are, barging in here and stopping my wedding?” His words were tight, but Dax couldn’t hide the gleam of excitement in his eyes. Clearly he wasn’t as good of an actor as he thought he was. “And what’s this about lying? Who’s lying?”

“They are.”

“We can explain.”

“No one.”

Everyone spoke at once, but it was Faith who took charge.

Enough was enough.

Faith couldn’t stand there for one more minute and let this train wreck of a wedding continue. Logan had already completely committed career suicide for Ever After. No doubt Dax Combs would have this little scandal all over the media and tabloids by the end of the day. No one would ever want to book Ever After for their wedding ever again. They would be blacklisted.

But that wasn’t even the worst part of it all.

Judging by Stephanie’s face, she was either going to burst into tears or start hitting Logan, or both. And it had to stop.

“We’re lying.” Faith took a step forward. “Logan and I have been lying from the start. We’re not a couple.” She turned to Logan. “I already told her the truth. It didn’t matter.”

“It did matter!” Tears streaked down Stephanie’s face. “Of course it mattered. You lied to me and made me believe a story that wasn’t true. A story that I bought into and believed with my heart. You made me believe in the magic, that maybe if I married Dax here, some of it would rub off on us and we could be happy too. Because we don’t have what you all have.” She spun in a circle to encompass Levi and Hope as well as Faith and Logan, who now stood next to each other, helplessly looking on.

“We never did,” she said, her voice softer as she turned to Dax. “We never had anything close to what they all have. Made up or not.” She lifted her bouquet before dropping it helplessly to her side. “Even if it’s fake, it’s still stronger than what we have.” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks now. “I just wanted it so badly. I just thought maybe…just maybe I could have a little piece of this magic.”

Magic.

That word again. Stephanie may be ridiculously angry with her, but it still didn’t change the fact that she was her friend. She might be mad now but it wouldn’t last forever, and no way was Faith going to sit by and let her believe that she couldn’t have that magic. Because she could.

“Steph?”

Slowly, the other woman turned around to face her.

“There is magic here.” She spoke quickly before she could be stopped. “And maybe it’s not the way you thought, with the identical twins each finding their happily ever afters.” She shook off the hurt in her heart just speaking the words aloud caused and kept going. “But there’s a different kind of magic here. A magic that sometimes brings you together with the one person you are meant to be with since you were kids.” She turned to smile at Hope and Levi before continuing. “The magic that helps you find love again after you thought all hope was lost.” She thought to Brody and Sarah, who’d been through so much. “And the kind of magic that helps you see your best friend is so much more than that.” She referred to Damon and Katie. “And that’s magic, Stephanie. Maybe the magic of Ever After can’t turn a relationship into something it’s not. But maybe you can—”

“Realize that you deserve more,” Logan interjected.

She shot him a look, but he put his hand on her arm and squeezed gently as he continued talking.

“Maybe the magic of Ever After looks different for you because what you needed to learn was that you deserve and are worthy of so much more. That your true love hasn’t been discovered yet.”

Stephanie sniffled and dabbed at her eyes, but she was listening. She was no longer yelling. In fact, everyone was listening, including Faith, who couldn’t believe that such things were coming out of the mouth of the wisecracking pain in her ass. She tried not to stare at him open-mouthed as Logan turned to her now and spoke.

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