Page 103 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

It was Malcolm, in the end, who answered. “Why, Sumner is Aaron’s best friend.”

And then my heart stopped entirely.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Iwas nearly positive I was dreaming.

That was the only way to explain the situation, the way I felt. My vest felt too tight around me, stealing my breath and crushing me.Why, Sumner is Aaron’s best friend.

For a moment, my eyes were unseeing as I stared at the tablecloth. I could feel my mind racing, struggling to absorb the shock of his words. Surely he was mistaken; perhaps there was another man named Sumner. Perhaps—perhaps?—

I closed my eyes, my world spinning.

“How did he end up being her secretary?” Malcolm asked with clear confusion. “He—he’s supposed to be visiting his father in New York, I thought?”

He’d directed this last bit toward his wife, whose brow knitted. “Who hired him?” she asked.

“We did,” my mother responded, her damage control voice on. “Your son—Aaron asked us to hire him, and—well.”

Sumner’s voice was soft in my head.I came highlyrecommended. The few peckings I’d taken from my food in front of me threatened to make a reappearance.

Vivienne’s accent caused her words to sound sharper. “You hired him to help my son spy on your own daughter?”

“Heavens, no!” my mother rushed in. I wanted to look over and see her expression, because we both knew it was a lie. If there was anything my mother did, it was attempt to brainwash me. “We hired him on Aaron’s suggestion, with no other intention in mind.”

I tried to keep my breathing calm through it all, the first potent emotion I’d felt in days beginning to seep through the bare numbness: rage. It was the sort of rush of anger that caused my head to swim, and before I knew it, I pushed to my feet.

My mother tried to catch my arm. “Margot, sit back down?—”

This time, I followed through on my earlier thought and tore out of her grip. “Donottouch me,” I snapped at her, my voice loud enough to cause a few heads from surrounding tables to turn. I couldn’t care less who eavesdropped.Faceless. I stared into her chocolate eyes, and I wondered what she saw. I couldn’t quite feel my expression on my cheeks, but I only knew that I felt hollow. It had to be reflected on my face. “You, unfortunately, picked a very bad day to get me to listen to you.”

Horror scrawled across her face, predicting my moves before I made them. But still, just a beat too late.

I stalked away from the table and to the hallway, no doubt with murder in my eyes. I found Sumner and Aaron in the hallway, Aaron holding his arm out to keepSumner back. “—going to ruin everything, showing up here,” Aaron was saying. Sumner looked over Aaron’s shoulder, eyes widening when he saw me. “Do you really think it’s a good idea?—”

I grabbed a fistful of the back of Aaron’s dress shirt and turned him around. I relished in the shocked expression in his wide eyes, only for a moment before I slapped him.

I’d packed all of my force into the reel back, so as soon as my palm connected with his cheek, Aaron stumbled sideways like a drunkard. He pitched up against the country club’s wall, his shoes screeching against the floor as he caught himself.

“I don’t know if it’s clear,” I told him, ignoring the stinging pain in my hand, “but that’s my way of saying you can take your engagement ring and shove it up your ass.”

“I’d say she knows,” Aaron muttered while he held his cheek. “Margot, listen?—”

But I was beyond listening to him ever again. “You should go in there and try to save the situation with your parents.”

Aside from the red palm print on his cheek, Aaron blanched. “My—my parents know?”

I just stared at him.

He seemed to debate which took precedence, placating me or his parents, when the latter eventually won out. Aaron, still cradling his cheek, rushed back into the wedding venue, abandoning Sumner and me in the hall.

I was no stranger to being alone with Sumner,but in this moment,hewas the one who felt like a stranger before me. Had it even been an hour since I stepped into the ballroom? An hour since I’d stepped from his arms? And yet it felt like it’d happened years ago. I could remember the embrace around me, but couldn’t remember the warmth. I only felt cold now.

Sumner took one tentative step toward me after several moments of silence. “Margot?—”

“This was the long conversation, wasn’t it? Not bad?” My voice shook, but it wasn’t with anger. “Not bad?You being a spy for Aaron Astor this entire time isnot bad?”

I memorized the horror in Sumner’s expression, the panic of someone caught in their lie, their secrets found out. His beautiful lips parted, lips that I’d kissed earlier today. The pit in my stomach formed into a chasm now, empty and bottomless.

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