Page 27 of Christmas Rings

A knock on her front door drew her away from her task. It couldn’t be Jed, as he had a key. Instead of coming over last night, he’d said he had some business to attend to before they left for the airport. She scurried over to the door and yanked it open, prepared for a delivery of some kind. Instead, Jed stood before her. His jeans and T-shirt were rumpled, like he’d slept in them. Stubble on his face and bloodshot eyes made him look as if he’d been on an all-night bender. She knew better. He hadn’t even wanted a bachelor party. Had something happened at work? Or with his mother?

“Where’s your key?” She hugged him. His body stiffened, so she withdrew, watching him carefully. Was he sick?

“I misplaced it.” He raked hands through his hair. “I’ve lost a whole set of keys.”

“Jed, what’s going on? Did something happen?”

He passed through the doorway into her apartment, thenslumped into the easy chair with his face in his hands. She knelt next to him and clutched one of his knees. “Jed, please. What is it? You’re scaring me.”

He looked up at her. “Something’s happened. Something terrible.” Tears filled his eyes. He swiped at them with his hands. “My mother’s done something so horrible. Something you won’t be able to forgive me for.”

“Impossible,” she said. “Like we agreed, it’s you and me forever. She can’t hurt what we have.”

“Wait to decide until I tell you what she did.” He choked on the last few words.

“Go ahead, tell me.” She couldn’t imagine anything that would change the way she felt about him.

“We can’t win against her.” He wiped his eyes on his sweater sleeve, like a little boy. “She’ll never stop trying to destroy us. What she’s done is so beyond anything I thought she was capable of. I can’t understand her. God, Alissa, I come from a family of monsters.”

“Tell me what happened. Jed, whatever it is, we can work through it. If it’s your parents, we don’t need them. Who cares if they’re there or not? This wedding is for us.”

“It’s bigger than that.”

“Did they kick you out of the company?” God, the woman was evil. How could she do this to her son during what was supposed to be such a happy time? She should never have trusted that Mrs. Marsh had a change of heart. “You can get another job. We can live on my salary until you find something.”

He lifted his face to look up at her. “It’s not the money. I love you. Please know that. I love you so much it hurts. And I’m so very sorry.”

“You’re not making any sense. The only thing I want is you. I don’t care two figs about anything she thinks about me. She can’t hurt me as long as you’re by my side. It’s been that way since the first time we met. You’ve said so yourself.”

“I was wrong. There are some things that are beyond our control. I’ve ruined your life. I should’ve known better. Someone perfect like you shouldn’t be anywhere near the monsters I call parents.” He got up from the chair as if a great weight rested on his shoulders.

She spoke sternly to try to get him to stop babbling. “Tell me what happened.”

He looked at her for a long moment. One in which Alissa could hear her heart thumping between her ears.

“My mother knows about your job at the club.”

“How?” Her stomach fell.

“Do you remember Amy’s son? The chef?”

She nodded, knowing suddenly what he was going to say. “Yes, I remember.” She drew in a long breath as her body flushed with heat. That’s where she’d seen him. Months before she met him at Jed’s parents’ house, Gary had been at the club. He’d been with a sketchy group of young men that Rif had kicked out after one of them tried to touch Millie.

“He has drug problems and needs money,” Jed said. “He had photographs of you that apparently he had a friend take at one of your recent shifts. Yesterday, he sent them to my mom, threatening to leak them on the internet and send them to your boss and your family, unless she paid him off. Instead, she decided to use them against us. She sent them to your principal and the president of the PTA.”

The room tipped sideways. “Oh God.” Shame and embarrassment washed over her. Everything, just like that, ruined. Her secret revealed. Not on her own terms, but via a cruel, controlling woman. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, the pain as swift and sharp as the wind that howled outside the building. There went the job she loved. The children and families she’d given so much would now see her as unfit to teach.

“She threatened to mail them to your mother,” he said. “Ibegged her not to. She made me promise to call off the wedding or she was going to text them to her.”

“Did you promise that?” Hot tears dripped from her eyes and stung her cheeks.

“That’s the point. Whether I call off the wedding to keep her from sending them doesn’t matter. When you lose your teaching position, they’re going to have to know why. You mother will never forgive me. My family is the reason you’ll no longer have the job you loved. Think about your sisters. You know how tough they’ve been on me already. When they find out what happened, what will they think? They’ll never welcome me into the family. I can’t do this to you. I won’t spread more poison into your life. I’m sorry, but it’s what’s best.”

“What is?”

“That we call off the wedding. I can’t marry you. It’s not right. Not now.”

She stared at him.Call off the wedding? How could you let this happen?

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