Page 5 of Triumphant Kings

She gives me a soft, watery smile. “No, you're just a young girl, growing up and living her life. You have school, friends, and boys. So many boys.” She laughs. “Oh, to be young again.”

“You're gonna tell me you would have wanted to be with more than just Dad back when you were my age?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Your dad was the only man for me. But that doesn’t mean you have to choose only one. If your heart belongs to more than one person, then as long as you're happy, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, Mom.” I smile back, feeling like a weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.

As if my eyes have a mind of their own, I search the area until my gaze lands on Grayson. He’s standing by the bathroom, drink in hand, as he leans back against the wall, watching us.

My heart starts to race at the sight of him. He might be wearing a mask, but I’d know that black floppy hair anywhere. There’s this way in which he holds himself that makes it easy for me to pick him out of a crowd.

When I’ve been staring longer than I should, he nods his head. A sly smirk twists his lips, and my stomach swoops.

Mom is still talking, so I quickly move my attention back to her.

“Married.” She shakes her head. “I can’t believe it. Are there any more secrets you wanna tell me while you're at it? Another lover you’ve thrown into the mix?” I know she’s saying this as a joke, but still, my eyes find Grayson again, and I bite my lip.

“Ahhh...” There’s a lot more I haven’t told her. Some things I should, but not tonight. This is not the place to unpack all my life problems right now. Things are currently on a need-to-know basis.

She follows my line of sight and is silent for a moment. “Sadie...” Oh, this time when she says my name, it’s in her mom voice.

“What?” My attention snaps back to her.

“I should have known,” she sighs. “We’re going to talk more about that later.”

Oh. Fuck. She knows, doesn’t she?Of course she does. She’s my mom.

Does Mark know? If he did, he’d have talked to Grayson by now, right?

“Sadie, did those boys know about you and Collin getting married?” Mom asks, nodding her head toward Grayson.

I look over again to find Preston and Declan have joined him.

“I’m going to say by the guilty look on your face, they didn’t,” she concludes softly. “Go, talk to them. We will pick this conversation up again soon.”

“Are you sure?”

She nods and pulls me in for a hug before kissing my cheek.

She leaves me standing there all alone, and I feel like a mouse in an open field with hawks flying overhead.

“Alright, Sadie, it’s time to face the consequences of your actions,” I mumble to myself.

“Heeey,” I say when I reach them, giving them a little wave as I rock back on my heels.Smooth, Sadie, smooth.

“Hey?” Preston growls, launching himself off the wall. “You come here, announcing to the whole world that you’re married to my fucking brother, and all you have to say ishey?”

“First of all, don’t be getting in my face about anything. Not after Declan and I spilled our hearts out to you and you fucking ghosted us for days!”

Preston breathes heavily, eyes darting between mine, but he doesn’t say anything. Good. I might have withheld this information because I believed that was best at the time, but I didn't run away from my problems. I was solving them. No matter how reckless it might've been.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Declan’s quiet voice pulls away any anger at Preston that started to boil up inside of me.

“Collin said not to. And I listened. Maybe it was the right thing to do, maybe it wasn’t, but in the moment, all I could think about was getting him out of a fucked up situation.”

“And what situation would that be?” Grayson asks. “Because we still don’t know why our girlfriend showed up married and with a new last name.”

I can see the hurt in his eyes, in all of their eyes. “I’m sorry,” my voice cracks as tears fill my eyes again. Looking around, I see people coming in and out of the bathroom. “Not here.” I grab Declan’s hand and tug him towards the exit.

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