Page 17 of Walkoff Wedding

It’s the only excuse I need to flee. Pushing Dixon off me, I brush past him without another word.

The moment Amos slides his hand in mine, tugging me back inside, relief floods my chest so powerfully that I feel like I could cry. A swell of emotions that have finally crested hits me at once.

Attempting to tamp down the emotions, I follow closely behind Amos as my heart pounds in my chest, still trying to make sense of the exchange that just transpired.

I’m disgusted… and for the first time, I feel truly hopeless. And terrified.

Amos pulls me inside Brent’s study, where I find Earl already inside, then shuts the door quietly, flipping the lock and drowning out the party.

My brow furrows in confusion as I take it all in. “What’s going on?”

Not that I’m not beyond thankful to have been rescued by him, to be far away from Dixon, but their expressions are terse, and tension sits heavily in the air.

Something’s happened.

“This couldn’t wait,” Amos says. “Earl… tell her. Go on.”

My gaze shifts to Earl’s tall, hulking frame as he begins to pace the floor nervously. The feeling in my stomach tightens as I wait for him to speak. There aren’t many times in my life that I’ve seen Earl nervous, and it does nothing but increase my anxiety.

“Honey, you’re making her anxious,” Amos says to him softly, and Earl nods, then pauses as he drags his meaty palm down his face.

“I… overheard something tonight,” he whispers, his gaze fixed on me. “Something I know I wasn’t supposed to overhear. But Addie…”

I swallow roughly, nodding. “Tell me.”

“Someone broke a glass in the dining room, and I was walking past the kitchen to the supply closet, and I overheard… Brent talking to Judge Barrilleaux. I realize I probably shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, but when I heard your name, I wanted to know what they were talking about.” He pauses, looking at Amos for a moment. When Amos nods, Earl’s gaze slides back to me, and he continues speaking. “I overheard them discussing your marriage to the judge’s son. He said that Brent better make damn sure you never find out that you’re to inherit Ever After when you get married. That it will screw everything up if you find out the bakery is yours if you marry anyone… not just his son.”

My breath hitches, and my chest tightens at the revelation. What? I bring my hand to my mouth, covering it as I try to digest what he’s saying.

“Addie… he laughed about lying to you about the will. Said your mama left you the bakery—it’s yours the moment you turn twenty-five or if you marry.”

I’m trying to process what he’s saying, and I find myself swaying on my feet, “What? He’s… he’s lied to me? All this time? I… I— Why? Why would he do that to me? To take the bakery?”

Earl nods, and Amos steps next to him, smoothing his hand in a calming rhythm over his suit-clad arm.

There’s no one in my life that I trust more than the people in this room, and if Earl says he heard it, then it’s the truth.

“It seems like you inherit the bakery if either of those two things happen, whichever comes first, and I don’t know why he’s been keeping it from you, pushing you to marry this guy, but he’s a snake, Addie. He’s just as corrupt as the company that he keeps, and I know something isn’t right. He’s manipulating you with false information for some selfish purpose. I know it.”

I nod. “I believe you, Earl. I know you’d never tell me anything that wasn’t true. But… if this is true, then that means… he won’t be able to sell the bakery. He won’t be able to take it from me…” I pause, trying to process what I’m hearing. “If I get married first, then he’ll no longer have a way to control me with it.”

I’m shaking as I try to process all of this. As I try to wrap my head around everything that I’ve found out tonight.

If what he overheard is the truth, then I don’t have to marry Dixon to save Ever After. To inherit what’s always been mine.

I lift my gaze to the only real family I have standing before me, hot tears falling from my eyes and wetting my cheeks that I hadn’t even realized had begun to well in my eyes until they spilled over.

“I don’t have to marry Dixon. The bakery can be mine if I marry anyone.”

Amos winces slightly, nodding. “Or… wait until you turn twenty-five.”

Unease tugs at the base of my spine, unfurling through my limbs as I remember the other part of all of this. The most important part. “But that only solves one of our problems. If the bakery is going under, then we don’t have until then. We have to do something now. Marrying him is still the only way to get the money we need to save it.”

“But now we can form a plan. We can figure out how to avoid it now that we know the truth, Addie. Now, he can’t threaten to take it from you if you don’t cooperate,” Amos adds with a soft, hopeful smile on his lips.

He’s right.

This gives me hope. It gives me the Hail Mary I had been desperately wishing for.

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