Making Love (Destiny Book 1) (23 page)

My mother looked defiant as she approached me.

“Whose phone is that?” I asked.

“I borrowed it from one of the servers.”

I don’t think I’d ever been so disappointed in someone. Well, not since my father.

I turned away.

“Don’t you walk away from me!”

I turned back. “What do you want me to say?”

“Becky is my best friend, she’s not going to tell anyone.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes.”

“Completely sure?”

“Yes!”

“Great. Since you’re so sure your friend won’t tell anyone, if security spots the press tomorrow, you’ll be happy to leave.”

“Well what if they are here? How will you know they learned it from Becky?”

I got my phone out and opened the Twitter app. “Oh look, a new tweet from BeckyJay. ‘My best friend just met Ben Latham at Will Braxton’s wedding in Scotland’. And she’s very helpfully tagged their names so any fans of theirs can easily find the tweet. It already has fifteen retweets and six replies asking for more information. What do you want to bet that she tells them everything she knows within the next five minutes?”

“Well you can't blame me!”

“Six months of planning and secrecy, flushed down the drain because you just had to brag. You couldn’t even give me one fucking day!”

My emotions were getting the better of me and I turned away again. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“Don’t you get all up on your high horse with me, missy! If it wasn’t for me-”

“Shut the fuck up!” I hissed. “If it wasn’t for you, I might have had a happy childhood.”

“I gave you everything!”

“You gave us money but it was clear you loved your job more than you loved us. Hannah was the one who raised me, Mum, because while you accuse us of being selfish and narcissistic, the truth is you were the one who was. Our lives revolved around you and what you wanted came first, always!”

“I did the best I could and you’re just an ungrateful little brat!”

“I am ungrateful, because you gave me nothing to be grateful for. Did you ever cook an evening meal? No, Hannah or your boyfriends did. Did you ever sit down and help me with my homework? Not once! Did you come to my graduation? No, Hannah did! You were a terrible mother and the only reason I haven’t said as much before it because I was being kind to you! For some unfathomable reason, I actually do care about you, which is why I wanted you here but once again, mother, you make it quite clear that the only person in this whole entire world you give a shit about, is you.”

I wrenched my arm from her grip.

“I want you and Brian gone, now.”

I turned and went to find Will.

“You can't kick me out! Where will I go?”

“I don’t care if you end up sleeping on the side of the road! I have spent far too much of my life caring about you and your opinion of me, but that stops now. You don’t deserve me.”

When I got back downstairs, Will was talking to his mum, sitting on the arm of her chair. Why couldn’t I have a mum like Diane?

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked when he saw my face, approaching me.

“Mum borrowed a server’s phone, our secret’s out.” I began to cry and he gathered me into his arms.

“Oh, hey, shh, everything will be all right, darling, we’ll find a way.”

The conversations around me stilled as the news spread and they saw that the bride was crying. Realising that I was making a show of myself on the eve of my wedding, supposedly the happiest day of my life, I pulled away and dabbed at my eyes.

I then noticed that almost everyone was looking towards the door, where my mother stood.

“What!” she demanded.

Hannah and Brian rushed forward to remove her from the room.

“Come on,” Will said, “Now seems like an excellent time to try the complimentary whisky in the room.”

I nodded and allowed him to lead me away.

I still felt a little teary but the drink helped.

“So, what do you want to do?” Will asked.

“What can we do? The horse has already bolted, we just have to live with it.”

“I’ll add additional security tomorrow and see if Lee can maybe run interference or something.”

“He’s supposed to be enjoying himself,” I reminded him. Lee was a guest too.

“Yes, but friends rally in times of trouble, and don’t forget that he has the entire Destiny PR firm to call on for help.”

“There shouldn’t be any times of trouble. You shouldn’t marry me, Will, my family are all nuts and we’re going to bring you nothing but problems.”

“Your parents are nuts, but you bring me nothing but comfort and joy.

“Are you plagiarising Christmas carols now?”

“Maybe,” he smiled. “But it’s true. And Hannah is lovely. I have a sneaking suspicion that her girls might terrorise us when they get a little older but I think between us, we can take them.”

Someone knocked on the door.

“Can we ignore it?” I pleaded.

“‘Fraid not.” Will shook his head and went to answer it.

Hannah was there and I took a swig of whisky, preparing for whatever she had to say.

“I’m so sorry,” she came in and hugged me. “I should have kept a better eye on her.”

“Not your fault,” I reassured her. “What’s happening?”

“Mum is going ballistic, she doesn’t see that this is her fault at all. I don’t know what else is happening. How are you doing?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I just know that I’m getting married tomorrow, come hell or high water.”

“Do you really want her to leave?”

“I want her to be a decent mother, then none of this would have happened.” I sighed but was overcome by a wave of anger. “She couldn’t even wait 24 fucking hours! ARGH! Is her right to brag really more important than my wedding day? Still, I shouldn’t really be surprised, she’s never really loved either of us, she only wanted us around for as long as she could bend us to her will. God, I hate this!”

I began to cry and Hannah rushed up to hug me.

“I know, I know,” she crooned. “Maybe you should let the others know what’s happening,” she suggested to Will.

“Are you sure?”

“Mum related meltdowns are something I have much experience of.”

Will left us and Hannah talked, hugged and cajoled me into a better mood.

“So, what do you want to do?” she asked again.

“I still don’t know. Part of me wants to make her leave but then she’ll tell everyone and
that
will be all over the papers and besides, she’s the only parent I have left.”

I could see that Hannah understood my sentiments.

“Then we carry on as usual. Brian will keep an eye on her and believe me, I don’t think she’s made any friends here. I think she realises she’s crossed a line when she saw the looks everyone was giving her downstairs.”

“If she realises, why can she never say sorry?”

“I don’t know,” Hannah admitted. I didn’t really expect an answer, we’d both often asked this question over the years.

“Will and Lee are going to see what they can do, trying to keep the press away, but…” I sighed. “I suppose it’s not the worst that can happen. So a few pictures of me appear in the papers… No one’s dead or injured. And at least she doesn’t know where the honeymoon is; she can't tell anyone what she doesn’t know.”

“That’s the spirit.”

We both knew this wasn’t about pictures though, it was about betrayal.

I hugged Hannah tightly. “I’m so glad I’ve got you.”

“Me too, Sis.”

She left then and I went about my extended, pre-wedding night time routine. I showered, exfoliated and moisturised but by the time I was finished, Will still wasn’t back, so I crawled into bed. I was just falling asleep when he climbed into bed and pressed a kiss to my temple.

“Will?” I murmured.

“Sleep, love, everything’s being handled.”

***

I awoke in the morning to my neck being kissed and I sighed with contentment.

“I want to wake up this way every morning,” I purred.              

One hand found my breasts and he began to tweak my nipples.

“I’ll do my best, as long as we don’t have to repeat the sex embargo in the future.”

“Damn.” I’d forgotten that rule.

Will pulled away, resting his head on his hand and looking altogether too smug.

“You planned that, didn’t you?”

“I plead the fifth.”

“We’re not American.”

“Then I’m exercising my right to silence.”

“You want to be silent?” I asked incredulously. “You?”

He narrowed his eyes. “We’re not married yet, wench.”

I knew he was teasing. “Yeah, but we agreed not to have sex until after the marriage. I honestly don’t think you can hold out another day, so you’ll
have
to marry me.”

“And I suppose I’m the only one suffering?”

“No, so if you do refuse, you need to seriously consider the possibility of me hog tying you and dragging you to the altar.”

“You and whose army?”

“I’m sure Helen will help me, she can kick some serious arse.”

“Fine, I surrender.”

“You haven’t heard my terms yet.”

“Anything, I’ll do anything you ask, my darling.”

He leaned forward and kissed me but just as it was getting interesting, he pulled away with a groan.

“Are you coming down for breakfast or should I sneak something up to you?” he asked.

“Why would you need to sneak food up?”

“Ah,” he looked uncomfortable. “Your mum said something about not eating breakfast so you fit the dress. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have joked about it, it was thoughtless.”

“Not your fault.” He knew I wasn’t paranoid enough to let one meal worry me. “But since you brought her up, what’s happened on that front?”

“We’ve brought in a lot more security and they’ve set up an exclusion zone.”

“That makes it sound like a military operation.”

“It just means they’ve made a perimeter. I can't promise there’ll be no long range lenses but no one who isn’t on the list is getting onto the grounds today.”

“Okay,” I nodded my understanding.

“When I went to bed last night, I left Lee trying to broker a deal with some of the bigger publications.”

“What kind of deal?”

“He’s trying to get them not to publish any paparazzi pictures, in return for limited access to some of our official wedding pictures.”

“Will they go for that?”

“I suspect it depends on the quality of any paparazzi pictures, but anyone who posts or prints them, will not be given the rights to use any of our official pictures.”

“Okay. How many pictures would we have to release?”

“Five, maybe as many as ten. Not all of us, some of the guests, the speeches, the venue etc, but we would get to choose which ones to release.”

Well, it was better than nothing.

“Thank you,” I said, taking his hand and kissing his knuckles.

“You really don’t mind?”

“It’s not ideal but I think you found a good solution to a difficult situation, a situation that I caused, I might add.”

“You aren’t responsible for your mother’s actions, darling.”

“I should have kept a better eye on her.”

“She’s a grown woman and that’s not your job. No one here blames you, least of all me.”

“Thank you.”

He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly for a few moments, then we got ready to go down to breakfast.

***

Breakfast for the overnight guests was in the Croquet Room of the main house and there were about 10 people in there when we arrived. We joined Hannah and her family.

“How are you?” she asked, her concern evident.

“I’m fine,” I assured her with a confident smile.

“Really?”

“Have you seen this guy?” I pointed a thumb at Will. “I get to marry him later. The zombie apocalypse could start right now and I’d still be fine.”

“You say the strangest and yet, the sweetest things sometimes,” Will smirked at me.

“I don’t like zombies,” seven year old Cara stated.

“I don’t like them either,” I assured her. “But I don’t think we have to worry about them today.”

“Good.”

Cara and Caitlin were acting as our flower girls, which I hadn’t wanted but Cara had a friend who had been a flower girl and she really wanted to be one too, and of course, I couldn’t leave her sister out.

“What time do you want to start getting ready?” Hannah asked me.

“I thought about one.” The wedding was at three, the reception began at four thirty and the dancing at seven pm. Will and I would be staying here again tonight (along with the guests who were already here) and going off on honeymoon tomorrow morning.