Page 68 of A Surprise Wedding for the Cowboy

She stilled as she lifted Jamie out of the playpen. Was her marriage really, truly over less than a month before it had begun? She should let Tate explain. Actually, she should look up the photo and see for herself.

Stephanie changed Jamie and sent him running down the hallway to the kitchen.

“Gama!”

“Good morning, sweet boy,” her mother answered. Mom had overcome the first hurdle in turning her worries over to the Lord, though they’d all pivoted from dreading the initial appointment last Friday to dreading the surgery this coming Friday, when surgeons would attempt to remove the mass and send samples away for testing.

“Can you feed him breakfast?” Stephanie called. “I need a few minutes in the bathroom.”

“Sure. I’ll fry him an egg. And oh, Jamie? Grandma bought you blueberries yesterday!”

“Blub!”

Even through her broken heart, Stephanie had to smile at the toddler’s excitement. He could eat his weight in blueberries.

“Thanks, Mom!” Stephanie crossed to the bathroom and looked the door behind her. She sat down on the edge of the tub and flicked her phone on. Was she really brave enough to look for the evidence Sage had found?

Tate would have an explanation. He loved her. He kept telling her so.

She believed him, right? She’d seen his love in his eyes. Felt his love in his kisses. In their intimate moments.

Maybe the paper had dredged up an old photo from the past. That was probably it. And besides, Sage was a gossip hound, and she’d always been a bit of a raincloud by focusing on the worst and thinking people couldn’t possibly change.

Stephanie had thought her friend was over that kind of thinking. Sage had finally forgiven Caleb for the perceived wrongs she’d stubbornly clung to since high school and allowed herself to love him. They’d been married for over a year now and seemed to be happy.

Yeah, it would be an old photo. Stephanie would find it and see the evidence for herself. Then, when Tate came home in a couple of days, she’d show him. They’d laugh together about how her old fears of loving someone who didn’t love her back had got the best of her.

She opened a search box and began hunting for the photo Sage assumed was so incriminating. It was likely nothing. Sage had a flair for the dramatic. Right?

Stephanie managed to hold that thought until she was face-to-face with the image. First: the photo wasn’t old. Tate was wearing the crimson tie she’d bought to match the dress she’d planned to wear to the gala. He had dozens of ties on his rack, but he’d laughed and said he’d never owned a red one before.

Second: The woman was beautiful and definitely not Stephanie. Her flawless face was framed by artless curls. Deep red lips that matched Tate’s tie, as did the woman’s perfect fingernails, visible in their clasped hands.

Third: Tate was definitely smiling at the woman. His face was angled slightly away from the camera, so Stephanie didn’t have a full view, but there was enough to see it was certainly him, with his cheek lifted in the way it did when he smiled.

Fourth: There was a caption. Sullivan Enterprises’ heir apparent, Tate Sullivan, was back in Chicago for the Gala of the Stars, accompanied by hotel heiress Dahlia Casselman.

The bombshell had a name. Dahlia Casselman.

Stephanie narrowed her gaze at the beauty who beamed adoringly up at Stephanie’s own husband. I’ll claw your eyes out, girl.

A feeble glow began to glimmer in the dark pit where Stephanie had plummeted, like the faintest dream of dawn an hour before the sun actually poked over the horizon.

She’d never felt the same toward Harper as she did Dahlia Casselman. With Eli, she’d known all along that he didn’t love her the way her soul craved to be loved. When Harper appeared on the scene, it had seemed inevitable, because Stephanie was unworthy of that kind of love.

But… was she? Unworthy, that is? Was that why Tate had gone off to Chicago without her and immediately hooked up with a woman from his past? A woman he’d never once mentioned to Stephanie even when she’d bared her insecurities about Eli?

Ohhh… there’d been that day in the dining hall when Tate had chatted and laughed with the female employee… had it been Kaci? No, Heather. Right? Stephanie couldn’t remember for sure, because Tate had completely set her mind at ease.

But now, Stephanie was hundreds of miles away from him. Was she out of sight and therefore out of mind?

No. Tate wasn’t like that.

Stephanie’s phone had blacked out while her thoughts churned and spiraled. She tapped to revive the screen. There was the photo again. The gorgeous heiress was definitely beaming at Tate. He was definitely smiling back. They were holding hands. There was no denying any of those things.

She sucked in a deep breath. Let it out. Again.

Tate had some explaining to do when he got home Friday. If he even bothered to return.

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