Page 1 of My Fiancé's Brother 2

PROLOGUE

I stoodin the room in the back of the church and stared in the mirror. My red hair was piled up on the top of my head. My sleeveless wedding dress’s tight embroidered bodice nipped at my waist, and the skirt billowed out in an expanse of tulle to the floor. It was too tight. I guess that’s what happens when you’re ten weeks pregnant. Your wedding dress becomes a straight jacket on your rib cage. I took a deep breath and hated how I was unable to expand my lungs to full capacity.

“You look like a princess,” Beth breathed from beside me.

We stared at our reflections in the mirror. I looked so serious. So young and uncertain. How had I ended up here? Had my indecisiveness and my inability to speak my mind brought me to this point? I felt wracked with uncertainty.

The problem was I felt numb. I could feel nothing. My entire being was whitewashed, and there was no color, no feeling, no sense of what was right and what was wrong.

“Do you think I should marry Matt?” I asked Beth.

The champagne flute hovered halfway to her lips. Our eyes met in the mirror.

“Is that a rhetorical question?”

“It’s a real question.”

I watched as she drained the entire glass. “Oh, God.”

I waited as she poured herself another glass. And then downed that one.

She squared her shoulders and looked at me. “You can’t hold what I say against me if you don’t do what I think you should do.”

I nodded.

“I think marrying Matt is the biggest mistake you could make in your life. And I think from the moment you say ‘I do’ to the moment you get your inevitable divorce, you are going to regret it every day of your life.”

“Oh.”

She poured herself a third glass. “You promised me that you wouldn’t hold that against me.”

“I won’t.”

“And I'll be there for you every single day if you decide to go through with this.”

“Thanks.”

“And if you do marry him and you end up deliriously happy you won’t hold this conversation against me.”

“I won’t.”

There was a knock at the door. Was that Jackson? My heart almost stopped.

The usher wanted to let us know that all the guests were seated. Matt was ready to take his place at the front.

Beth looked at me, and I widened my eyes at her.

Beth spoke. “Tell them that the bride needs five more minutes.”

He nodded and shut the door behind him.

“Do you think Jackson is here?” My hands shook so hard my bouquet fluttered.

“You want me to go check?”

I nodded, grateful that she didn’t mention my obsession with Jackson when I should focus on Matt.

“I'll be right back,” she slipped out of the room.

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