Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 28

Chapter 28 The Gown

Nara and Julian-were legally married, which made it settled and nailed down, and everything miserable about Mandy’s last life was finally going to change.

I am so happy right now.

Nora smiled faintly and looked at the two of them with a very specific meaning behind it. “And I hope you find a boyfriend soon, Mandy, and marry him even sooner.”

Mandy hooked her arm through Adrian’s before anyone could stop her, staking her claim, smug all over her face. “From your lips, Nora. It won’t be long.”

Adrian did not remove her arm and tipped his chin down at her. “Nora’s the one getting married. Why are you happier about it than she is?”

Mandy tipped her head back, and the lie came out without any effort at all. “Because of my mother. I’ve always felt I owed Nora something. Now she’s married this well, and I’m happy for her.”

Nora had no interest in watching the performance and turned to Julian. “I’m home. Go on back, and remember to take the medicine.”

Everything she had brought went to him.

Julian gave a soft yes. “I’ll come for you tomorrow morning.”

Tomorrow was the wedding day, and he meant that he would come for her himself instead of waiting at the altar like everyone expected.

“All right.”

Mandy heard it from a few feet away and could not keep a smug little sound to herself.

Julian left, and Nora went straight upstairs.

From start to finish she never once looked at Adrian and treated him like empty air, and it put a frown on his face and pulled his eyes after her all the way up the stairs.

Mandy caught it and her hands closed into fists. That bitch. Married and still working on my Ace.

Nora showered, changed into something comfortable, and started for the stairs.

She had barely cleared her own door before she ran straight into Mandy, who had obviously been waiting for her.

Nora frowned. “Something you need?”

“I only wanted to know what time you leave tomorrow.”

“He picks me up at 10. The ceremony starts at 11 at the Weston estate, and not a minute past.”

The timing matched Mandy’s last life exactly.

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Chapter 28 The Gown

Mandy sounded delighted by that. “Good. I’ll get up early and wait to watch your wedding.”

her Jast life, Julian never came to collect her at all. He was in an emergency room by then, and with no groom and a wedding the family refused to call off, they propped a framed photograph of him at the altar and had her say her vows to it.

I was the joke of the entire city. Now it’s Nora’s turn to be that joke.

Next morning, the wedding team hauled Nora out of bed at an unreasonable hour to start on her face.

The wedding was for the heir to the richest family in the country, and Constance had spared nothing on any part of it. She had the gown made to order at the top of the market, and everything around it matched.

Mandy had gotten up early to enjoy the spectacle, and one look at the gown drained her face. “That’s what you’re wearing today?”

“It is.” Nora ran a hand over the diamonds and looked up at her on purpose. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

The makeup artist beside her offered an explanation, meaning it kindly. “It’s stunning. There’s exactly one in the world. It carries a thousand hand-set pearls and two hundred carats of diamonds, and at 99 million dollars, it’s the most expensive wedding gown ever made.

“Money alone doesn’t buy it either, because most of what it’s worth comes from the fact that the Queen of Valmora designed it herself…”

Mandy cut her off through her teeth. “I know.”

She crossed to Nora with the resentment and envy sitting openly in her eyes and stared at all those diamonds. “I also know that this gown alone gets you an introduction to the Queen of Valmora, and a friendship with her.”

The makeup artist was surprised. “I wouldn’t have expected you to know something that private, Miss Sinclair.”

Mandy knew every bit of it, because this was the gown Nora had worn to her wedding with Adrian in the last life.

By then she was a widow herself, watching Nora shine and be happy while the officiant walked the room through the gown’s history and its price of nearly 100 million dollars.

Nora had gone on to turn that gown into a friendship with the Queen of Valmora, and out of that friendship came deal after deal, and a good part of how the Pierces became the richest family in the country.

It ate me alive back then.

But I came back. I’m the one marrying Adrian. I’m the one who should be wearing that gown. I’m the one who should be friends with the Queen of Valmora.

So why is it on Nora again?

“No!” Mandy came at her like something unhinged and grabbed at the gown. “That’s mine. You don’t get to wear it. Take it off.”

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15:19 Thu, Oct 11 D.

Chapter 28 The Gown

Nora slipped out of reach, brought her hand around fast and clean, and the slap spun Mandy in a full circle

d-dropped her on the floor.

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