I walked over, gently took her arm, and helped her down.
‘Aunt Louisa, I ca today because... It’s about the engagent.’
Her face didn’t change much, but I watched it like a hawk anyway, ready to call an ambulance if her blood pressure spiked again.
Louisa sighed. ‘Just say what you need to say. Don’t worry, I won’t overreact this ti.’
We sat.
I slid the box across the coffee table.
‘This is the brooch you gave back then. Now that Rhys and I are no longer engaged, it doesn’t feel right for to keep it. I’d also like the gold ring my parents gave your family returned. Let’s just make a clean break.’
Louisa ran her fingers over the brooch.
Next to her, Willow sat like she’d been sculpted from pure snobbery—chin up, shoulders back, eyes full of suspicion.
She still didn’t buy it.
She thought I was playing so long con.
Maybe forcing a breakup to win Rhys back.
Louisa grabbed my hand.
‘Are you absolutely sure about this? Rhys isn’t perfect, I know. But once you break off the engagent, what happens next? You’ll be alone. Everyone in Skyline knows you’re his fiancée. They think you’ve been chasing after him for years.’
That was true; I had been chasing after him for years.
‘If you walk away now, they’ll laugh behind your back. You’ve got no one to back you up. Have you thought about what that really ans?’
‘Mum!’ Willow snapped. ‘She’s not calling off the engagent, she’s pretending to call it off—obviously! It’s just another sob-story stunt to get a reaction out of you. God knows what ga she’s playing this ti.’
‘Shut it,’ Louisa shot her a look sharp enough to peel paint.
I ignored Willow. ‘Aunt Louisa, you don’t have to worry about . I actually ca today with so good news too—I got married.’
Instant silence.
Both Granger won froze, mouths slightly open.
Then Willow found her voice and used it to shatter glass. ‘What the hell are you talking about???’
‘I got married. For real.’ I turned to Louisa. ‘You don’t have to worry. I’ll be just fine without Rhys. Better, even.’
Willow’s face scrunched like she’d just bitten into a lemon. ‘You’re not seriously faking a marriage just to break up Rhys and Catherine, are you?’
‘No. Rhys and I are ancient history. Whatever he does with Catherine is none of my business.’
I reached into my bag and pulled out the marriage certificate, handed it across the coffee table. ‘We signed the papers today.’
Louisa reached for it, but Willow snatched it away first.
‘This is fake,’ she barked, flipping it over like she was looking for a watermark. ‘You’re full of tricks. No way is this real.’
I shrugged. ‘There’s no reason to fake it.’
She kept squinting at it. ‘Wait a second... is this—?’
Her eyes bugged out.
She finally looked at the na.
‘Ashton Laurent?!’
She scread it like it burned her tongue.
Then she blinked.
Then she laughed—like, full witch-cackle.
‘Mirabelle Vance! If you’re going to fake a marriage, at least use soone believable. Where the hell did you get the nerve to Photoshop Ashton Laurent’s na onto a marriage cert? It looks legit, I’ll give you that. You must’ve paid a fortune for the forgery.’
Louisa didn’t believe it either. ‘Mirabelle, where’d you get this?’
Willow snorted. ‘Gotta admit, it’s a pretty good fake. Who’d you hire, one of those dodgy hacker forums?’
The look she gave belonged on a mugshot wall, sared with smug and judgent.
I ignored her and turned back to Louisa. ‘Aunt Louisa, co on. Like I’d forge a governnt docunt just to get a rise out of you. Especially one with the Laurent na on it. That’s not just illegal; it’s suicide. You know it. You know .’
I looked her dead in the eye, not even a twitch.
Louisa’s lip wobbled.
When the truth of my words hit her, so did the tears. ‘You’re really married.’
Willow flailed like soone had just hit her with a water balloon. ‘Mum, are you serious? Don’t fall for her crap! If Ashton Laurent married Mirabelle Vance, I’ll chop my legs off and moonwalk backwards down Fifth Avenue.’
I saw her frantically scrolling through her phone, comparing so internet image to the certificate in front of her.
‘If you can prove this certificate’s fake,’ I said, folding my arms, ‘I’ll be the one doing the backwards moonwalk. With no clothes on.’
Her face changed by degrees.
First doubt, then panic, then full-blown shock.
She slumped into the sofa. ‘This can’t be real. Mum. Tell I’m hallucinating.’
Louisa sniffled and grabbed my hand again. ‘You can’t just marry so random stranger to spite Rhys. This is your whole life we’re talking about...’
‘Ashton’s not just so stranger,’ I said sharply.
I hadn’t ant to snap, but sothing about that sentence rubbed the wrong way.
Maybe because it wasn’t entirely untrue.
‘Ashton’s young and good-looking and well-known. Definitely not a stranger.’
Louisa dabbed her face with a tissue. ‘I know, sweetheart. He’s obviously miles better than Rhys. I just... I’m scared you acted on impulse. n like Ashton, they live on another planet. Can soone like that really treat you right?’
‘He does treat right,’ I said, dead calm.
Which was a big statent, considering I’d barely spent more than so dozen hours with him.
But I wasn’t lying.
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