“It’s not real, is it?” I asked, staring at the biggest diamond I’d ever seen, and Ned laughed.
I pulled my hand away quickly and we moved to the front door. Ned turned his back to me and tapped the code into the panel. I tried to lean around him to see the numbers, but he sensed my movement and bent over the keypad, blocking my vision. The door clicked open, and a clamor of voices reached me. Ned took my hand and instinctively, I tried to pull it away.
“We need to keep up appearances,” he reminded me, holding it firmly.
Hunter appeared. I hadn’t seen him since the day he’d picked me and Ned up at the airport, and I could feel his eyes on my back as he followed us down the large gravel driveway. As we approached the gates, they swung open and I saw twenty or so reporters waiting, with cameras and microphones. They surged forward and Hunter stepped quickly in front of us, spreading his arms, motioning at them to keep back.
The questions started.
“Mr. Hawthorpe, can you tell us about your new wife?”
“Apart from the fact that she’s perfect?” he said. “As you can see for yourselves,” he added, turning to me with a smile.
“Amelie, you worked for Mr. Hawthorpe?”
“I still do,” I replied. “Nothing has changed.”
“Were you surprised when he proposed?”
I blinked in the flash of lights from the cameras, suddenly overwhelmed.
“Yes, she was,” Ned said smoothly.
“It seems to have been a whirlwind romance. You only met four months ago, is that right, Amelie?”
“We met nearly a year ago, at a party,” Ned said, stepping in again. “And I knew straightaway that there was something special about Amelie. I couldn’t believe my luck when she started working at Exclusives. It seemed like destiny.”
“Can you tell us about your trip to Vegas? Did you intend to ask her to marry you or was it a spur-of-the moment decision?”
Ned shook his head. “I planned it weeks ago. But I didn’t want Amelie to guess what I was up to, so I pretended I had to go on a sudden business trip and told her I needed her to come with me to sit in on the meetings. Even when I didn’t take her along to any meetings she still didn’t guess. There were no meetings, of course, I used the time to choose the rings, get the marriage license, find witnesses, and sort out all the other things.”
The lies tripped off his tongue so easily.
“Can we see the ring, Amelie?” someone shouted.
Ned pulled my hand forward and the diamond sparkled in the sunlight. He put his arm around me as the reporters took more and more photos and I stared emotionless into the crowd as they called to me, asking me to smile. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carolyn.
Relief washed over me as our eyes locked. I moved to go to her, but Ned’s arm tightened around my waist. I tried shifting away from him, but his grip was so strong that it pinched my skin.
Carolyn held up her phone and pointed to it with her other hand. “I don’t believe you!” she called over the noise of the reporters.
“Mr. Hawthorpe, is there any truth in the rumor that a charge of sexual assault was recently filed against you?” another voice shouted, drowning out Carolyn.
There was a sudden silence as everyone turned to look at the woman who’d asked the question. Some of the reporters moved aside to give her a direct view of Ned, and I recognized her as the woman who had approached him at the Exclusives party. Beside me, Ned froze.
“I’ll ask you again, Mr. Hawthorpe. Can you confirm that a charge of sexual assault was recently filed against you?” the woman repeated.
Chaos broke out as journalists began thrusting their microphones toward Ned, asking the same question, until Hunter stepped hurriedly in front of us, protecting Ned. As the gates began to close, I heard Carolyn call out again.
“Her name is Justine Elland! The woman Ned Hawthorpe assaulted is Justine Elland!” She tried to push her way through the throng of journalists. “Where is she, Mr. Hawthorpe? Where is Justine?”
My mind was spinning as Ned walked me back to the house. Justine was still missing. And what had Carolyn meant, she didn’t believe me? She’d been pointing to her phone, but the only message I’d sent her since my return was the one from Ned’s phone, saying that I’d arrived back safe and sound, and suggesting that she came to Ned’s so that I could tell her about the trip. There had been nothing for her not to believe. Unless Ned had sent her another message, pretending to be me.