Reborn Heiress: Escaping My Contract Marriage with the Cold CEO Chapter 16: Vanilla Swirl on His Dimple

VANESSA BELMONT

At the lemonade stand, Ollie paused as he looked at sothing over my shoulder. "Is that Kevin Jang?"

I turned and followed his gaze. Kevin Jang, mouth crusted with cinnamon and sugar, held a foot-long churro in each hand.

"Can you die from a gluten allergy?" I asked.

"I guess Kevin wants to find out."

"I really hope it’s not a dead-body kind of afternoon," I said.

"I’ll drink to that."

We downed our lemonades and tossed the plastic cups in a nearby trash can. I heard the trill of Ollie’s cell phone. He took it out of the front pocket of his cargo shorts. "Hello? Yes. What?" He pointed at the phone to indicate he needed to take the call and walked toward the manse.

I was on my own. I wandered around the party zone. Bouncy houses. Pony rides. Carnival gas. Ice cream carts. Entertainers. In other words, a blowout bash for Ollie’s nieces.

I ca upon a booth serving alcohol and got myself a strawberry margarita. I took my new sweet tequila friend with to watch people play the carnival gas.

"You’re Vanessa Belmont."

Next to was a beautiful blonde dressed in a sleeveless blouse, black shorts, and black sandals. She sipped so sort of fruity concoction with an umbrella in it.

"You’re Grace Witherstone, which is akin to being a Rockefeller. I heard even Samsung kowtows to you."

"Only on the holidays," she said. "You’re the daughter of the Belmonts." She studied , her green eyes filled with curiosity. "Aren’t you the fiancée of Nathan Jang?"

"Unfortunately."

I drank more of my margarita and felt deja vu echo through . Suddenly, I rembered this day from my first life. Nathan had brought and Fiona to this party.

At the ti, I didn’t know that Ollie had been here, or that it was an event for his relatives. At one point, Fiona shoved into the pool and jumped in after. Of course, Nathan rescued her first. I knew how to swim, so I rescued myself.

Fiona accused of pushing her, shedding big, fat tears of innocence while Nathan and other party-goers glared at in disapproval. People had already started to think of as the villain. Poor, poor Nathan marrying , the jealous harpy, instead of sweet, pitiful Fiona. How tragic for the billionaire. Boohoo.

"Do you want to marry Nathan?" asked Grace.

"No."

"That’s probably a good thing."

"Grace." I turned to face her. "You can be straight with . I really hate double-sided small talk, so get to the point."

"Oh, I like you." Grace offered a genuine smile. "Isn’t that your fiancé over there with little orphan Annie?" She pointed across the yard to a section of picnic tables.

Fiona, in a white lace dress with her hair in a bouncy ponytail, sat next to Nathan. He handed her an ice cream cone, and she bumped his chin with it, laughing as she accidentally (yeah, right) got so vanilla swirl on his dimple.

"Yes, that’s Nathan and Fiona." I sucked down half my margarita. "White moonlight and white knight having yet another nothing-going-on-here mont."

"Fiona strikes again," said Grace.

"You know her?"

"Since high school. She like poisoned candy to n. She’s been after Nathan for a long ti. After her dad screwed over half the world with his money sches, she and her mother fled to Europe. It’s been seven years, but everyone in our circle has a long mory. The only way she might get forgiveness is to marry into the Jang family." She bumped my hip. "If she gets pregnant with the first Jang heir, she’ll have protection for life."

"So she has a goal," I said. "And six months to execute it." I blew a raspberry.

"What? You don’t want to marry one of the gods of Wall Street?"

"It’s a corporate marriage," I said. "Happy on the outside. Miserable on the inside. You should see the contract. It’s insane."

"I have so experience with being offered as part of a property deal," said Grace. She wiggled her eyebrows. "Are you and Oliver...."

"You know he’s gay, right?"

"I did not."

"We’re friends for life. He’s nice to . Him and my cat, Henry. That’s my team."

"I’ll join Team Vanessa," said Grace. She clinked her glass with mine. "Let’s get more drinks. Then I’ll challenge you to carnival gas. How are you with darts?"

"Terrible," I said. "I might injure people."

"Perfect."

I did not, in fact, injure anyone while throwing darts at inflated balloons. Neither did I pop any. But I still got a little pink bear as a prize. Grace was really good at the ga and won a teddy bear three tis the size of mine.

I was better at ring toss, and Grace sucked at it. Her irritation with how badly she was losing got funnier by the second.

By the ti we hit the shooting ducks ga, we were three margaritas in and found everything we did hilarious.

"I’ve been looking for you all over," said Ollie as he joined us. "Look who’s here!" Next to him was Carver Haynes looking particularly delicious in a T-shirt and swim trunks.

I didn’t want to, but I had to admit I was looking at my middle-school crush with drool at the corners of my mouth. Was a 12-pack of abdominal muscles a thing? Because I was pretty sure Carver’s stomach showed off a 12-pack.

"You wanna eat?" asked Carver in a smoky voice. His gaze held an interest that might well make the pants fall off of other females. Mine stayed on firmly, thank you. Still, I blushed.

"Eat what?" asked Grace.

Ollie leaned over and whispered, "Him."

"Oh." Grace waggled her brows at . "Say yes, sister."

"By the way," said Ollie. "Carver is here because I invited him specifically. I’m taking bets on whether or not one of Nathan’s forehead veins burst from jealous anger."

"I’ll take a piece of that," said Grace.

", too," said Carver. "I think a head explosion is imminent."