Page 90 of Insta Bride

I looked at Elena, “Really? Lyle and Zac with your friends.”

“Could be worse, they could end up as happy as us.”

I felt Elena gradually pull away as the interview continued. At least I learned two important facts. First, they had my girl’s back. Six hundred percent, they’d have her back no matter what. Secondly, they doubted I did.

“So, back to Elena, how long have you been friends?” Stephanie obviously responded to the producer’s hurry-along off camera.

“We’ve been friends for years. There were five of us and we always lived in each other’s pockets. We grew up together, we were to university together.” Jess replied easily. I made a mental note to see how often Jess led the answers. If she was the spokesperson for the group, I’d need to work harder to win her over.

“I assume you’ve dated together?”

“Some of us more than others,” Olivia shot the others a look.

“Sounds like a story there.”

Jess redirected back to the expert, “What do you want to know about Elena?”

“Well, Elena and Kye. Have you seen them together much? How does she seem? Does she seem happy? Does she have the glow of a woman in love?”

“Wow, a lot of questions.” Jess laughed. “Yes, we’ve seen her with her husband.”

None of my friends used air quotes. I didn’t think anyone under fifty used them. But, Jess had used air quotes—about me—on national TV.

“You don’t think he’s her husband?”

“Oh legally, we know they’re married. They live together. So, I assume they’re playing happy families.”

“You don’t approve? Or, you don’t believe it?”

Elena flinched further away from me as Jess came straight to the point, “What’s to believe? That you can fall in love in a month? You can legit get married and think it’s gonna to end happily?” Jess shared a look with her friends, who nodded in agreement, “They’re two different people. Elena deserves someone who’s honest and faithful. She deserves to fall in love with someone who deserves her.”

“And I don’t?”

I muttered the words as the relationship expert asked, “And you think he doesn’t?”

Elena

I curled up to the far edge of the sofa—needing to put space between my husband and my nerves.

Why hadn’t my friends talked to me? I mean, we still had weekly lunches when they could have asked me any number of questions. They could have told me about their concerns. I was the only person who could get me out of this crazy situation. Why had they waited for the interview?

Why couldn’t they have just talked to me?

Always the peace-maker and the one most likely to believe in eternal love, Olivia cut in, “Look, he seems devoted to her. He says and does all the right things.”

“But—” Tash interrupted before Olivia held up her hand to continue.

“My husband and I have hung out with them, couple to couple. Kye doesn’t relax when he’s surrounded by Elena’s Posse as he calls us, but when he’s around Hunter or guys, he’s different. He makes her laugh in a way we haven’t heard her laugh in years.”

The editors made the most of Olivia’s dramatic pause, “He makes her happy.”

“But? I hear a but,” Stephanie prodded when Olivia stopped and leaned back. I wished Olivia had continued, because Tash took over.

“We’ve all seen the photos.” Tash’s face offered no mercy or understanding. “Even though he keeps telling Elena there’s nothing going on, that the women are clients or from before the Island, how could so many social media posts be a lie? I mean we wouldn’t be good friends if we believed Kye’s excuses without question, right?”

Kye turned off the TV. The calmness in how he carefully placed the remote on top of the LP player scared me. We did passion and fighting. Not calm and cold.

Why couldn’t my friends have talked to me, rather than the world?

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