Page 29 of Marrying My Moth Lady

Children…holy cow.

“I want children,” I blurt out. My stomach gurgles with mortification.

“Excellent, since you will have one in about two months,” Eli says. “Are you feeling alright?” He drops his gaze to my belly and up to my fake smile with a frown.

“Am I ever?”

“Such a shame. Maybe you should have gone into medical research instead of them bugs. You could cure yourself,” he says, waving a gold-plated fountain pen at me.

As if science is that simple. A couple of hours in a lab and any man can cure himself. Why didn’t I think of that?

“Maybe the next generation,” I say with a shrug. Matthew works in the hospital, so any children I have with Millie would have medical or science-based interests on both sides. A little tyke in glasses, a giant lab coat, and Momma’s heels would be adorable. “How can I help you? I hate to rush you, but I want to visit the restroom before I dress in my suit.”

“We’ll make this quick,” Eli says, taking in my flushed face and assuming I’m sick. “I brought the contracts for the forest, center, and money transfers…if you still require this stuff…seeing as you and Amber got cozy these last few weeks.”

“Amber and I made plans for the forest and center,” I say with vigorous nods. The plan is for her to drain my bank account and disappear while I evict Carter Mining from the forest. I plan to build a modest house on the edge of the forest and apply for the northern half to be registered as part of Wayne National Forest. I’ll lose equity, but Millie’s childhood home won’t be threatened by mining ever again.

I swipe the tablet from him and throw it open. I sign for the deed to the forest with a partially concealed smile. Next are the miles of bank pages to transfer the cash from Eli to me. I recognize all the legalese because I filled out the same paperwork to transfer money to Amber. She will submit them on her way to nowhere. The sale for Winged Wildlife and Abundant Earth Foundation says it’s worth one dollar, but it’s my legacy and worth the world to me. The last pages are the mineral rights, the final nail in the coffin. Once registered, the state will mailcopies to me. I click ‘send’ after adding my thumbprint in all the marked places.

The threat to Millie’s home is dead, squashed under my thumbprint.

“Here ya go, Mr. Carter,” I say, passing the tablet to Eli.

He gazes at the sent receipt with a furrowed brow. My stomach grumbles and my intestines squeak. With a shake of his head, he turns off the device. “A rooster one day and a feather duster the next,” he murmurs. “Do yourself a favor and never get old, Horus. Passing the reins to the next driver isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply, because I don’t know what else to say. If he wasn’t the one terrorizing my person, I’d feel sorry for the guy.

“Take care of my little girl,” he says with a sniffle. “Dang nabit! I said I wasn’t crying today. Aww hell, I’ll go walk my baby down the aisle. See to your plumbing, young man. I won’t have you embarrassing my family in front of the cameras.”

The older man lumbers out of my office and down the hall, mumbling to himself about sissies and feelings. My heart goes out to him. Once he finds Amber gone, he will be heartbroken. It’s not my place to manage Amber’s relationship with her father and not my fault I’m in the middle. One thing’s certain, as soon as the dust settles, I’m introducing my folks to Millie. They will love her because I do…

Wait, where did Eli say he was going?

I fire off a text message to Amber with a warning that her father is on the way. The send arrow turns to an hourglass.Come on!I must text the MOTH SIBLING THREAD the samewarning. My stomach goes from complaining to shouting. I’m forced to pocket my phone while I run for the bathroom…

Chapter 14

Millie May

“I can’t thank you enough for jumping into my dress. Where’s your phone? I’ll put my number in it—in case you need help filing the annulment papers.” So, this is Amber, the one who dragged Horus into her mess. She tricked him into her life of misery. I’m torn between gratitude for her help and scratching her eyes out.

Horus didn’t describe Amber in his stories—other than her being spoiled. In my mind, I pictured a princess with a giant ballgown, a serene smile, and a sweet voice. Amber is the opposite. Her expression is fierce, as if she’s calculating her next move or measuring me for a coffin. Thank goodness layers of veil muffle her jarring voice from my antennae. We’re the same height, but I’m twice as wide—maybe it’s the dress. She folds her lean arms over her leather vest, which ends above her protruding belly. The hairstylist made her a beautiful French braid with tiny flowers to fit under her motorcycle helmet.

“Why would I annul my marriage?” Fear creeps up from the insecurity I keep buried in my belly. Is this another one of her tricks, or did Horus send her to set me straight?

“Because you are marrying Horus,” she says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “He’s not exactly charming, you know? He’s not wired right.”

Says the woman who picked him to act as the father of her baby.

“I know this is sudden. Horus and I haven’t been together for a season of blueberries, but he didn’t send you, did he?” My words break as I hold in the sobs threatening to burst from my lips and ruin my makeup. I squirm under the weight of my dress and floor-length veil. The protective layers grow heavier with the second. The room’s temperature soars. “Can we open a window? I’m suffocating in this corset.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, He didn’t send me,” she says, rushing behind me. She unbuttons my dress with lightning-quick fingers and yanks open the back of the corset. “Rash has the marriage certificate for us to sign. Look Horus and the officiant already signed it. I left him grinning like a mule eating briars.”

“I’ll wait outside just in case a reporter enters the building,” Rash says, closing the door behind him with a quiet click.

Merciful heavens! I don’t know if it’s the loosening of the torture trap around my ribs or the reassurance that Horus will be at the altar, but my panic subsides. The dots in my vision float away like balloons skyward. I can make it through anything with my man at my side. If he ran, I doubt I’d escape this building without detection. My bawling would draw too much attention. Matthew is somewhere, but my heart calls for Horus. I guess I didn’t need my brother to give me away. Somewhere in our whirlwind courtship, I put my care in my future husband’s hands.

“You love him,” she says, lifting my veil slightly to press tissues into my shaking hands. “Sorry for the shock, but I assumed you had an ulterior motive.”

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