How to Ruin a Wedding(87)

But I just don’t have the time.

I’m so sorry is all I can think to say. I gesture to Nick. “He isn’t who I thought. This isn’t what I thought—what I wanted. I’m so sorry.”

“What is happening?” Bethany snaps. “Explain yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” I say again, and run as fast as possible to Anders’s car. I throw myself in, lock the door, and rush back to Anders before I can face the fire of questions I’m not equipped to defend myself from.

This wasn’t supposed to happen like this. This wasn’t supposed to happen at all.

When I pull up to the house, an unfamiliar car is parked in the driveway behind Taina’s rental. Not an Uber, since there’s nobody in the car. I’d think it’s Anders, but he wouldn’t get a rental just to get back home.

Then I get out, spot a man talking with his hands on the porch, and my sister in front of the door, shouting.

My stomach free-falls.

I rush over and call out her name. Then he turns—Mathew. I stop so fast my knees can’t keep up, and I trip on the stairs. Pain ricochets up my body as I grip the railing for support.

“I knew it,” Mathew spits out. “Of course you’re here. Bailing your sister out of whatever trouble she’s gotten into. Again. Always.”

“What trouble?” Taina rushes over to my side, still in her sweats. “Sorry, I came unannounced again. I wanted to finish our fight.” Then, she faces Mathew. “We’re having a little vacation together. I told you I was coming here.”

“This isn’t the address of the rental you booked,” Mathew says. “Why are you here?”

“Why are you tracking my exact location? What have I ever done to warrant that?”

“You’re helping out with one of her ridiculous jobs, aren’t you?” He looks to me. “You really can’t do anything on your own.”

I look down as Taina says, “Who the hell are you speaking to like that?”

“I told you I was sick of this!” he tells Taina. “I told you to let your sister clean up her own messes for once. You said this was a vacation. I knew you lied.”

“And you didn’t?” Taina shoots back as I try to step away, but she tightens her hold on my waist. “You’re supposed to be on a work trip, not stalking me.”

“You’re my wife.”

“And she’s my sister.”

“I’m your husband.”

“I should go.” I pry Taina’s fingers off me. To fling myself into the ocean, if it meant getting away from anyone and everything right now. It’s all too much.

“You should have gone a long time ago,” Mathew says. “Your time limit is almost up. I warned you. I don’t care if you don’t have the money. You promised you’d leave my house.”

Taina grips my shoulder with her nails. I’m sure she’ll draw blood. She pins me in place, looks up at Mathew with a flat expression, her voice a single, leveled tone. “Excuse me? What time limit?” Then she turns to me. “What promise?”

“You coddle your sister,” Mathew says, “and it’s exactly why she doesn’t grow up. So, I stepped in.”

Taina takes a measured breath, looks to me. “And you didn’t tell me about this conversation?”

My brows pull together. “I don’t want to ruin your relationship.”

“Yet you do an amazing job at it,” Mathew shoots out.

Taina lets me go. I see it in her, the lack of emotion, the fists at her sides, the straightening of her shoulders. I wrap my arms around her. “Taina, no.”

“Wife?” Taina struggles to free herself from my grasp. “I’ll be a widow from this point on.”

“Taina!”

“I’ll kill you,” she says to Mathew. She turns and elbows me. “You, too, for keeping this from me.” She nearly slips out of my grasp, but the extra weight I have on her helps me yank her down the steps.

Instead of using the space as a barrier, Mathew storms down to us.

Before he reaches the center of the stairs, someone bullets past us. Anders grabs a fistful of Mathew’s shirt and throws him down with force.

Anders is larger, but barely. Mathew doesn’t roll down the stairs, but the impact sends him stumbling down, gripping the railing to keep from hitting the pavement.

Anders is in an all-black sweatsuit, his hair a windswept mess, and his brows are knitted together; a long wrinkle dents the center of his forehead. When he approaches us, reaches out to touch a hand to my face, his hand is a gentle contrast to the anger radiating off his body.

“You okay?” he asks so softly, my eyes burn with tears from the only person tonight who has spoken to me without a hint of anger.

I nod, and he caresses my cheek.

Mathew barks out a cruel laugh. “What’s this?” he asks. “Are you sleeping with him? You really will use anyone for your own benefit, won’t you?”

Both Taina and Anders whirl on him, and I somehow am able to run in front of them both, placing a hand on each chest.

“Please stop.”

Anders firmly grips my wrist, pulls me away. “That’s the bastard who threatened you, isn’t it?” Anders asks. “He wanted to kick you out even with nowhere to go.”