Chapter 4: Public Kiss

I married Jasper Rhodes on Friday at ten fifteen in a room with a stained carpet and a plastic fern.

I wore a cream dress from the closet that fit every curve I own.

I had tried it on that morning and looked at myself for a long time.

It was cut for my body.

Nobody had tried to hide anything.

"You look beautiful," Jasper said at the clerk's door.

He said it flatly, once, and meant it.

My face went hot.

"That's a public line," I said. "We're not public yet."

"The elevator is public. There's a man in it."

I laughed before I could stop.

The clerk called our names, and the door opened.

I expected my father.

I did not get him.

I got Camille, standing at the back of the room in a pale blue coat with her hands folded.

"I know you said not to come," she said. "I couldn't let you do this alone."

I had never said not to come.

I had not told her where it was.

I looked at Jasper.

His face was calm.

"I told her," he said. "She called the office."

Camille hugged me so hard her sapphire ring pressed into my back.

"I'm on your side," she whispered. "Whatever Dad says. Grayson is furious, Spencer is worse, but I'm on your side."

I held on to her.

I wanted so badly to believe someone in that house was.

The clerk read the words.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Mocked My Curves, So I Married the Billionaire Bartender from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.