Page 180 of My French Love Affair

Emma ignores my question entirely. “Well, who is it?” she asks. “Who are you choosing as maid of honor at your wedding?”

I groan, flopping onto the couch and sitting myself down next to Jas. “Emma, please,stop. I barely know him!”

“Yet here you are, dripping in Cartier, fresh from his suite, looking like you’ve been thoroughlyfucked.”

I glare at her, and Jas snorts.

“Well?” Emma says, placing her hands on her hips as she blinks down at me. “Am I wrong?”

“Oh, babe - you’re already his,” Jas comments. “You just don't know it yet.”

I roll my eyes, but the words hit a little too close to home.

Because the truth is, Idoknow it.

I just don’t know what to do with that knowledge.

Clearing my throat, I straighten up. “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you both.”

Emma and Jas exchange a look, and I take a breath, exhaling slowly.

“Frederic… let something slip last night. Something about Jacques.”

Jas’s brows knit together. “Jacques? What about him?”

I hesitate for a moment.

“He’s been lying.”

Emma frowns. “Lying about what?”

“About the house,” I say, glancing between them. “About… about the yacht. About pretty mucheverything.”

Jas blinks, clearly trying to process. “Wait. What do you mean?”

I press my lips together, then sigh.

“The house we went to for that first party? It wasn’t his. It’s Frederic’s family home.”

Emma’s jaw drops. “No fucking way.”

I nod. “And the yacht? It wasn’t just some ‘connection ofJacques’. It’sFrederic’s.”

Jas leans back, exhaling. “Holyshit.”

Emma looks like she’s having a full-on existential crisis.

“But - wait. This doesn’t… Leah’s been staying there. At the house. AtJacques’house.”

I roll my lips together, unsure of what to say.

“I just… I don’t know much about it. I didn’t want to prod too much or react in front of Frederic. I was in shock, and I didn’t know what he’d think, or how much he knows, and I just… Yeah. I don’t know,” I sigh. “What I do know is that the houseisn’this.”

Silence passes between us all for a long moment as the girls process my words.

Jas is the one to finally break it, letting out a long, low whistle.

“Leah’s going to lose it.”

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