Page 31 of Marrying My Moth Lady

“It’s not love exactly…but what’s best for the baby.”

“If he’s not the one, I’ll hire a nanny to help you raise my grandchild. I’ll run damage control on our reputation. We could say he jilted you at the altar. If I pay him enough, he’d make a statement saying so, I just know it. Sorry to break it to you, but he will never love you as much as he loves his bugs.”

“I know, Daddy,” Amber says, grabbing my ankle after three kicks connect. “Horus does make our family look good on camera, though.”

Is she fishing? Why doesn’t she take the lifeline he offers and clean up her mess? By this evening, Mr. Carter will discover our deception. He will have no coal mining, no forest, no conservation center, no Amber…and worst of all, no idea where his unborn grandchild will reside. Guilt chews at my heart, but I’m not in control. How can Amber hide under my dress when she’s hurting the two men who love her most?

I could shake the fire out of her.

I’m furious on Rash’s behalf. Oh no, my anger! I close my eyes to pray their red glow doesn’t permeate the veil. I’lllook like a blinking traffic cone. My hum would calm my eyes to their usual red but dislodge my antennae from their weave in my flower crown. The noise would catch Mr. Carter’s attention, too. He must believe I’m Amber until she gets her ducks in a row and confesses.

“That’s why I came to visit you. The reporters wanted to film him, but he sent a flyer about the beehive’s opening here in three weeks. He couldn’t give an interview because his nerves called him to the toilets.”

“I can’t go out there in my wedding dress. What if Horus comes out? It’s bad luck for him to see me.”

“I didn’t think of that,” he says, patting my hand. “I’ll go feed the buzzards. Just had to check that my little sweetie pie is enjoying her big day.”

He kisses my veil and opens the door to a scowling Rash. “Who are you again? I don’t remember hiring you,” Mr. Carter snaps at him.

“Dr. Mills paid me to guard Amber. I’d walk through fire for her, but hopefully, today won’t require it. It’s my job to stay by her side until she tells me to leave. You have my word she will always be safe,” he says with his tattooed hand over his heart. My heart cries for the sincerity in his voice and the weight sitting on his heart.

“What in tarnation was that?” I scold Amber as soon as the door clicks shut. I sweep my dress to the side to reveal her balled form. Instead of a weepy drop of her head, she glares at me with defiance.

“It’s complicated—”

“No, it’s not, if it’s love,” I fire back. “Rash deserves to know you are proud of him.”

“I’m proud of him. I’ll wear his colors and ride bitch on his bike after today. I carry his baby,” she whispers, scrambling to her feet.

“What a gesture of love,” I reply with an eye roll she can’t see but is still satisfying. “Those gestures are forhissocial circle. You don’t want anyone fromyoursocial circles to see you together. You are so proud, you hide him from your father.”

“I don’t have to stand here and listen to you! What do you know? You’re marrying the bug guy with the poops!”

“Go ahead and run away from me,” I say as she storms across the room. “Our business is finished, but try to outrun your conscience. There’s nowhere to hide from your thoughts!”

Chapter 15

Horus

“Thanks for coming, Mom and Dad,” I say while hugging my folks in the hallway. When did I grow a foot taller than Dad? The big joke in our family is Mom cloned us. I was the little copy and over time, the roles reversed. Is he shrinking? How long has it been since I visited them? “Today’s wedding is a surprise—”

“We haven’t met Amber,” Mom says, dabbing her eyes with Dad’s handkerchief.

“Millie,” flies out of my mouth. A weight lifts off my shoulders when I correct her. “That’s why you haven’t met her. We’re caught in the middle of Amber’s plot and want to weasel out of it in our way.”

“I didn’t believe you’d pick a spoiled little heiress for a minute. You always were the rebel,” Dad whispers in my ear as he hugs me. “Your insides look like that biker’s outsides.”

“Looks can be deceiving. Rash is a good man,” I say loudly to my parents…and Rash.

Rash nods at us over Mr. Carter’s head. The biker and the billionaire disappear around the corner. They must be headed to the horde of reporters out front. I hope Amber doesn’t convinceMillie to ditch me. Millie isn’t easily swayed, but our relationship is new and delicate. Too new for a wedding, if I’m honest, but the fire in my belly burns for her. Love will grow like wildflowers between us. I won’t let her go until I have the chance to prove I’m the one for her.

“Despite going by the name Rash,” my mother says. “His mother wouldn’t pick Rash for his birth name.”

“Something about a wild night with three girls when he turned twenty-one. His MC told his drunk self to stay away from the kiddie pool, but he couldn’t resist. They will never let him forget the month he spent bathing in oatmeal baths and antibiotic cream for his folly. Rash told the story when I met him. He’s good-natured like that,” I say with a salute to the biker.

“What’s Millie like?” My mother whispers when the pair are out of earshot.

“Sweet as pecan pie,” I reply. “Gentle as a summer’s breeze with the softness of butterflies—”

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