Page 13 of Bride By Coronation

Nothing comes. All I see is Fiona and everything she represents.

The longer I try to make her image disappear, the worse the dread in my stomach grows. And I can't escape it. There are a few things I'm sure of regarding Fiona becoming my queen: She could never want me, accept me, or be happy calling herself my wife.

3

Fiona

A Week Later

"What do you think about this?" Blue asks, holding up a hot-pink miniskirt.

I shake my head. "That'll be a negative."

Her face falls. "Really? I think it matches perfectly. And I love this material."

"We had a similar skirt two years ago. Last year, Condora opened their show with a nearly identical one."

Blue wrinkles her nose. "Of course they did. They're always copying my mom's line."

"Yep. Welcome to the fashion world," I chirp.

"It's so unfair!" Blue complains.

"What's unfair?" Skylar questions, stepping into the wardrobe room.

"Condora copying our pink skirt from two years ago," I explain.

Skylar glances at the material in Blue's hand and smiles. "They say it's better to be copied than to be the copier."

Blue whines, "It's cheating. And now I can't do anything with this design I created."

Skylar reaches for it and stretches the waist, studying it. "I don't know about that."

"It looks like the Vixen we launched," I remind her.

"Right. Which is why you need to do your homework and study our releases from the last ten years," Skylar reprimands Blue.

Her face falls. "Sorry. I just had this in my head."

Skylar assesses the material for another moment and then hands it back to Blue. "If it's in your head, then finish it."

"It is finished," she protests.

"Not if you want it in the line this spring," Skylar challenges.

Blue grabs the skirts. "Fine. I'll see what I can do."

"That's my girl," Adrian booms in his Russian accent as he enters the room.

Skylar's face lights up. "What are you doing here?"

He tugs her into him, kisses her, then announces, "Hoping to take my wife to a long lunch." He wiggles his eyebrows.

Blue wrinkles her nose. "Ew. Get a room, you two."

I laugh.

Adrian surprises Skylar almost weekly, sometimes more than once, to take her to a "long lunch." I'm sure it's code for sex. Sometimes, Skylar doesn't even return to the office.

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