Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 429

SCARLETT

I stood behind Tasha with my hands clasped in front of me, and no matter how hard I blinked, the tears would not stop gathering. Sparrow stood a few paces away in a suit so sharp it looked like it had been sewn onto his bones, and he was staring straight at me. His eyes had found mine and they were not letting go, and I felt a smile pull at my mouth before I could stop it.

I knew this marriage was a contract. I knew it was a shield, a year of borrowed safety, a transaction dressed in white lace. But watching Tasha stand in front of me in that fitted dress, her soft curls catching the morning light, her cheeks pink with the kind of joy I had not seen on her face in months, I felt something crack open in my chest.

Jasmine's breath tickled my ear from behind. "If you cry, I am going to cry. And if I cry, Maya is going to cry. And the three of us are going to look like wrecked bridesmaids in every single photo."

I swallowed hard. "Then stop whispering in my ear and look at the bride."

"That is the problem," Maya whispered from my other side. "She is too beautiful. It is not fair. How is anyone supposed to compete with that?"

"You are not supposed to compete with the bride. That is the first rule of being a bridesmaid."

I could already see it. A real wedding someday, not bound by any contract, a marriage full of love and happiness. A man who adored her, babies with her eyes and his laugh, nieces and nephews once removed, a career she loved, a house full of light. I could see all of it, so clearly it almost hurt, and it was not so far away anymore.

My hand settled on the locket at my throat, the one I had hidden for years and no longer needed to hide. I wore it openly now, a small gold pendant against my collarbone, and I opened it with my thumbnail. Inside, Lynette smiled up at me, frozen at an age I would never forget, the sister who had been the only mother I ever knew. I looked at her face and I smiled back.

"You would be so proud of Tasha," I whispered. "Look at her. Look at what she turned into."