The Hidden Heiress: Married to My Ex's Brother novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Wedding Night

"And what am I, Lance?"

I said it louder than I meant to.

He didn't care. He was enjoying this.

"A liar. A violent, gold-digging liar." He ticked them off on his fingers.

"You hit me with a bottle. You climbed on my brother in front of the whole club the same night."

"And now you've married into the money you couldn't get through me."

My knees went loose with relief.

He didn't know.

He had no idea.

"That's it?" I said.

"That's plenty."

"You married a Brewster for her money two days before you told me. In a courthouse. In my Christmas tie."

"That's different."

"How?"

"I'm a Beckford."

Footsteps came up the stairs behind him.

Slow. Heavy. Unbothered.

Rem stopped on the top step with his hands in his pockets.

"Go on," he said to his brother. "Tell me exactly what she is."

Lance spun around.

"She's using you."

"I know. I'm the one who asked."

"She hit me."

"I saw the stitches. Good aim."

"She married you for the money!"

"She signed a prenup this morning that gives her nothing," Rem said. "She asked for it. Twice. In writing. Try again."

Lance's mouth worked.

"I've got the video," he said. "From the club. My friend filmed the whole thing. You want everybody in Seattle to see your wife smash a bottle on a man's head?"

"Do you?" Rem asked. "Because that video has you in it."

Lance looked at him for a long second.

Then he pushed past me down the hall and slammed a door.

Rem held out his hand.

"Let's go home," he said.

Home was four blocks away.

His house was a narrow old place from 1909 with a deep porch and a crooked chimney.

He'd restored every inch of it himself.

The floors were original fir, he told me, and the stained glass over the door came from a torn-down church in Tacoma.

He sounded like a boy showing off a fort.

I loved it immediately and said nothing, because he'd be unbearable.

My duffel bag from Ballard was already in the front hall.

He picked it up and carried it upstairs.

He walked past one door and opened the next.

"Your room," he said.

A big white bed. A window over the bay. Clean towels folded at the foot.

Somebody had put a jar of tulips on the dresser. Dina's tulips, from City Hall.

"Mine's across the hall," he said. "Bathroom's at the end. There's coffee at six. I know you've got the 7:10 on Monday."

He set the bag down on the bed.

He didn't look at me.

"Good night, Mrs. Beckford."

He walked to the door.

He was halfway through it when I said his name.

He stopped with his hand on the frame.

All evening he'd sat at that table and taken his family's poison for me.

He'd stood on the stairs and faced down his brother for me.

And he'd never once asked for the thing he wanted.

I knew he wanted it. I'd felt it against the car.

"Rule four," I said.

He turned around slowly.

"What about it?"

"I'm saying so."

He didn't move.

"Etta. You don't owe me anything. The deal was..."

"The deal was separate rooms unless I said so." I took off my mother's pearls and set them on the dresser, one, then the other. "I'm saying so."

His eyes went dark.

He crossed the room in three steps.

He stopped with his hands on my hips, not pulling me in, not yet.

"Still saying so?"

The words were rough, like they cost him something.

My whole body answered before I did.

"I told you to stop asking."

He lifted the hem of my sweater slowly, knuckles grazing my ribs, and I raised my arms.

← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend