Not the Bride He Wanted novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: What Happened on the Stone

The roadhouse at the crossroads below the Ridge had sawdust on the floor and a moose head over the bar wearing somebody's bra.

Aksel was at the end of the bar on Thursday night, alone, with five empty shot glasses in front of him.

His four friends from the Ridge crew were at the pool table behind him.

They saw me come in and went quiet.

I'd known all four of them since kindergarten.

One of them had cried at my mother's funeral when he was four.

"Well, look at this," Aksel said, without turning around. "Her Majesty."

I took the stool next to his.

"Where's your wife?"

He laughed into his glass.

"Ask your father. She moved back into his house on Saturday. She sent her mother for her clothes."

"She left you?"

"She says she wants it annulled."

He lined up a sixth glass with the others.

"Says the vows were said under duress. Says the King made her do it."

"Our father begged for that double wedding."

"Yeah, well." He shrugged. "She's changed her story. She does that."

I waited.

He turned on the stool at last and looked at me.

His eyes were red, and he hadn't shaved since the wedding.

"Your dad pulled the Ridge," he said. "You know that? He told me on Tuesday."

"Pulled it how?"

"No seat for me anymore. Says a man who can't keep his wife can't keep a pack."

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