I Married a Stranger to Ruin My Groom novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Family Dinner

The Lorne family club had a dining room with dark panels, white tablecloths and a portrait of Harvey's grandfather over the fireplace.

He looked stern in it, and not at all like a man who would have done this to his grandson.

"Eight directors," Harvey said in the car. "Cory's father has been calling them all week. Tonight they decide whether the marriage is real enough to let me sit in the chair."

"And if it isn't?"

"Then the chair goes to Cory on a technicality, and he'll fire everyone who ever liked my grandfather."

I smoothed down a borrowed black dress that fit better than anything I owned.

"I'm good with a lie," I said. "I'm not good with a long one."

"Then tell the truth and leave out the parts that hurt."

"How do you know I can do that?"

"You did it at the microphone."

I looked at him, and he was watching the road.

At the long table, eight directors in dark suits turned to look at the bride in black.

Cory's father sat at the head, a heavy man with Cory's smile and none of the warmth.

Across from me, in a pale blue dress with her hair pinned perfectly, sat Mallory.

"Mallory is a close friend of the family," Cory's father said. "I invited her."

"How kind," I said.

She gave me a small, brave smile.

It was the smile she'd practiced since she was twelve, the one that made teachers believe she'd been wronged.

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