“I’m glad you thought of that,” I said. “I’d hate people to think that of me.”
“But please know that I’m happy to give you more if you want.”
“No.” I shook my head quickly.
“Does that mean you agree?”
“I’ll need to think about it.”
He shot back his cuff, glanced at his watch. “You have approximately forty-five minutes. The ceremony, if you decide to go through with it, is booked for four o’clock.”
“Wow,” I said, my heart racing. “No pressure then.”
“Actually, no pressure at all. It’s entirely up to you.” He nodded to somewhere over my shoulder. “See that chapel? That’s where the ceremony will be. Why don’t you go for a walk and think it through? If you decide it’s something you’d like to go ahead with, I’ll meet you outside at five to four. Wear something cute so that we can take a picture for the press. If not, I’ll see you back at the hotel.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
PAST
I woke up in my hotel room in Las Vegas, and the events of the previous day came flooding back. Had I really gone through with it? I held up my hand, saw the gold band that Ned had placed on my ring finger, and a terrible doubt took hold.
It’s fine, it’s a business arrangement, that’s all. You thought it through and decided that the chance to go to college without having to worry financially was worth the risk.
Now, in the cold light of day, I thought about that risk. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t see that it was so very great. I wasn’t worried that Ned wouldn’t pay me, a hundred thousand pounds was nothing to him. Nor was I afraid that he might want sex, despite telling me that it was purely a business arrangement. In all our time here, he had never done anything to make me uncomfortable, or made a remark that was out of place. People might judge me for being stupid enough to get married on the spur of the moment to a man I barely knew, but the story Ned and I had agreed to tell—that we’d been secretly dating for a few months, and that he whisked me off to Las Vegas with the intention of asking me to marry him—would make it more understandable.
If it hadn’t been for Carolyn, I wouldn’t have had any misgivings at all. She would be hurt that I’d kept a supposed relationship with Ned from her. It bothered me that I couldn’t tell her the truth. But if I did, she’d be angry that I’d married him for money. Except that I hadn’t, not really, because I’d given him something in return, a way out of what to him was an impossible situation. To be honest, I couldn’t see why he didn’t just stand up to his father. But maybe, in wealthy families like his, there were certain things that had to be done out of duty.
I pushed myself up on my pillows, looked at the ring on my hand again. Once I told Carolyn that our marriage was a stupid mistake, it would be fine. And she wouldn’t be angry at me for long—I’d be able to tell her in a month, because yesterday was August 1st and Ned and I had agreed that we’d announce our separation on the first of September. Once we had, I’d move back to my apartment and carry on with my life. I’d have to leave my job at Exclusives, because no one would expect me to continue working there once we’d separated. But then I’d look for another job to take me through to next September, when I’d finally be able to go to college.
It had actually been fun yesterday. When I arrived at the chapel, Ned had been waiting with a bouquet of flowers and two witnesses. The ceremony was over in fifteen minutes. Outside, we’d posed for a photograph and Ned had joked that his parents were about to get the shock of their lives. We’d walked back to the hotel, had more champagne and a celebratory dinner, then Ned had gone to his room, and I had gone to mine.
I stretched my limbs, sorry that I was going to have to leave this luxurious bed, this beautiful hotel. But I needed to get up, the taxi was coming at ten to take us to the airport.
The hotel phone on the bedside table rang and I smiled that Ned was acting like a husband, checking I was ready.
“Amelie?”
My heart leapt into my mouth; it wasn’t Ned, it was Carolyn. If Carolyn was phoning me here, at the hotel—how did she even know I was here?—something must have happened.
“Carolyn, is everything alright?”
“Amelie, thank God. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” She sounded close to tears and my panic increased.
“I left it on the plane, I’ll get it back later today, when we land, we’re leaving this morning. What’s happened, are you alright, is Daniel alright?”