Page 30 of Charlie and Her Sweet Escape
A tragedy I could prevent.
“You’re right.” My tears sizzled against my burning cheeks, evaporating to nothing. I was outside of my body, looking in, as if the part of me that made decisions and saw and felt was allwrapped up in my heart (currently shattered and molten around the room), and what was left was the emotionless robot Greg always wanted.
“Hm?” he asked, already riffling through some papers on his desk, his phone screen alight in front of him.
“There are consequences to actions.” I wriggled my engagement ring from my finger.
He looked up with a smug grin. “I knew you’d see it my?—”
I set the ring on his desk.
“Charlotte—”
“I can’t be with someone who would do this.” I backed up a step as he stood.
“This is ridi?—”
“Iwon’tbe with someone who would do this.”
“You’ve got to be kiddi?—”
“I’m not.”
“Let me speak!” he roared, and despite myself, I flinched. It took all my self-restraint not to apologize. I clamped my mouth shut against the words, not letting them out. I’d apologized to him for so many years to keep the peace, I didn’t know how to not do it. He swore under his breath, and his nostrils flared as he continued. “Our wedding is this weekend. We have family and clients already in town. We have a camera crew coming to film us. Did you forget about that? It’sMarried in the Wild,notnewlysingle in the wild.”
His words nearly leveled me. “Is that what you’re worried about? What people are going tothink? That this might make you look bad?”
“The only person who’s going to look bad is you,” he said with so much confidence, it was hard not to believe him. “How are you going to get the money you need for your mom, Charlotte?”
“I’ll find another way.” My voice was smaller.No, Charlie. He doesn’t get to make you feel like the bad guy.
He snorted. “And the contracts you’ve already signed? Pretty sure there’s a fee for backing out.”
“They can’t force us to get married.” Right? No, they couldn’t. I didn’t know much about law, but who I married seemed like a pretty ironclad right. Theycouldforce me to pay back all the nonrefundable plane tickets and filming equipment they’d already rented.
“Charlotte, please,” he said in a soft tone, picking up my ring and staring at it in his palm. The princess cut was gorgeous, and I loved wearing it. Even now, I stifled the urge to snatch it from his hand and put it back on my finger. The representation that I belonged with someone. That we were a team. An inseparable duo. That no matter what, in the loneliness of this world, I had him. He held the ring out to me. “Enough with all this nonsense.”
Nonsense.
I turned and left, ignoring as he called after me. He didn’t chase me. Was that a relief? A disappointment? There were too many feelings going through me to label them.
I found Rosie outside talking on the phone. She pulled it back from her ear. “Is he going to stop it?”
I shook my head, the words locked in my throat.
“Well, Bennett has a dang good plan B. And it looks like it’s going to work.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me toward my car. Into the phone, she said, “Jules, I’ve got to go.”
“Wait!” I said. Jules was one of Rosie’s older brothers, and more importantly, a lawyer. “I need to talk to him.”
She handed the phone to me without question as she started my car and careened through the parking lot toward the shelter. For the first time, I was grateful for Rosie’s dramatic driving. Especially as I thought about Greg hearing the tires peel out of his parking lot.
“Hey, I have a question,” I said to Jules, the emotion thick in my voice. I clipped my seatbelt in, because even in the middle of a crisis, I knew how fast Rosie took a turn.
“Sounds like you’ve had quite a day, Charlie. What can I do?” His firm, take-charge tone was exactly what I needed to hear. Wishing, once again, that I was a Forrester wouldn’t help anything. Butdang, did I wish it.
“Jules, if I sent you a contract I have with a national network, could you read it and tell me how much trouble I’d be in if I broke it?”
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