AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Samantha Dare’s stomach churned with anxiety. She recognized the feeling, one she’d become familiar with as her wedding day approached. She’d tried to shake it off and did the same now, reminding herself that marrying her business partner was the smart thing to do. Just because the passion had fizzled didn’t mean they wouldn’t have a solid relationship based on shared interests.
She smoothed the lace bodice of the ballroom wedding gown she wore and chewed on her bottom lip.
“Samantha, are you okay?” her older sister, Olivia, asked. “Stop that or you’re going to need to touch up your lipstick.”
“I’m fine.” She patted her bare lips. Dammit. She would need to have it put on again.
“Spill,” Olivia persisted. “I know all your tells.”
Their conversation caught the attention of Samantha’s other bridesmaids: her sister, Avery, her half-sister, Sienna, her cousins, Lucy and Brianne, and Samantha’s best friend and office manager, Brandy. They sat on the sofa and club chairs, picking from the charcuterie board filled with a variety of cheese, smoked meat, and tiny fruit. Half-empty champagne glasses were spread around the table. All the women looked beautiful in differing metallic colors with a variety of silhouettes.
Once Samantha became the center of attention, they all questioned her at the same time.
“Stop, I’m fine!” Samantha raised her voice and immediately regretted it. “Sorry. I’m just having nervous, walking-down-the-aisle jitters.” She sighed. “I need some fresh air and a few moments alone to clear my head.”
The bridal suite was located on the fourth floor of the Meridian NYC Hotel, on the same floor as the ballroom where the ceremony would occur. The hotel was once owned by her father, a man she neither respected nor wanted to think about on her special day. The Meridian Hotel Group was now in the hands of her cousins, something that worked for the entire family, so no hard feelings for anyone… except her father, Robert Dare.
The door to the terrace was already open and she stepped outside, then walked to the balcony. Bracing her hands on the top of the heavy stone railing, she drew a deep breath of beautiful spring air and wondered why she couldn’t calm down.
Her gut told her it wasn’t every day wedding jitters but voices from another terrace distracted her and she focused on those instead of the unwelcome thoughts running through her mind. All would be well once she said I do.
“I know what you promised me,” a distraught-sounding female said, the voice coming from the terrace around the corner from the one where Samantha stood.
Curious, Samantha couldn’t help but step closer. Was she eavesdropping? Yes, but better to focus on someone else’s issues than her own.
“But seeing you in this tuxedo, ready to get married… I don’t like it,” the woman continued, but now Samantha thought she recognized the voice. Marley, her soon-to-be husband’s personal assistant, was speaking.
“We had an understanding.” And that coaxing reply came from Samantha’s fiancé, Jeremy Rollins.
“How long will it take before you’re able to get rid of her?” Marley asked.
Shocked, Samantha’s belly fluttered with nerves. Certain she’d misheard, she waited to hear her fiancé’s reply—and what the hell was he doing alone with Marley right before their wedding, anyway?
“Calm down,” Jeremy said in the patronizing voice Samantha hated. No woman liked being talked down to. “We’ve waited this long, surely you can hold out another year or two. The breakup has to look real if I’m going to get my hands on any of her money. Her brothers will make sure of that,” he muttered. “It’s you I love, Marley.”
Silence descended, followed by an obvious-sounding moan.
Samantha sucked in a horrified breath. That no-good, low-life, cheating son of a bitch. He was having an affair with his personal assistant. The same woman he insisted he needed with him when he traveled to meet clients. He’d claimed his ADHD kicked in during long meetings and Marley took the most detailed notes. And Samantha had believed him.
She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hand to her rolling stomach. She was an idiot. He’d duped her into using her trust fund money to start their joint PR firm and she’d agreed, believing he was the brains when it came to creating potential campaigns. After they’d launched, his ideas had impressed many big-name clients to join them. Jeremy was smart. Apparently smart enough to put one over on her.
She lifted her skirt and stormed back into the suite, his false words ringing in her ears. I love you, Samantha. We’re going to be such a great team, Samantha. We have so much in common. We’re a dynamic duo, Samantha.
“Bullshit,” she muttered, fury coursing through her veins.
“Samantha? What’s wrong?” Her mother, Emma St. Claire, strode over.
Wearing a beautiful silver beaded gown, looking elegant as ever, her mother was Samantha’s rock. There was no one she admired more for her strength and dignity, especially after everything her ex-husband had put her through. She was married a second time and extremely happy.
“Samantha?” Emma repeated, lines creasing her forehead, her concern obvious.
Samantha shook her head, already feeling the heaviness in her throat and the angry tears welling up in her eyes. “I don’t… I can’t… This wedding isn’t happening.”
“What? Why not?”
Samantha wasn’t sure whose voice she heard the loudest as her family shouted questions her way.
