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It felt like death.

Each step that brought me closer to Ace was like betrayal, a knife getting shoved deeper and deeper into my chest or maybe deeper into Louis.

I stumbled around ten feet from the front.

Ace locked eyes with me and pointed to the corner of his right eye then closed it. Right, close my eyes. Imagine Louis.

So I did.

I imagined his brown eyes and blond hair. I imagined his infectious smile and the way he always talked into his wrist like he was part of the secret service. He’d gotten more serious toward the end; then again, we’d gotten serious.

Imagine you’re walking toward him.

Imagine it’s Louis, not Ace.

We stopped walking. Dad turned me toward him and leaned in kissing my left, then my right cheek.

“Who gives this woman?” the priest asked.

“Her mother and I,” Dad answered in a bold voice.

Ace stepped down and held out his hand.

Dad placed mine in his and it was over.

I was already Ace’s by that one small movement, and another De Lange had joined the Five Families by way of marriage.

Just like that.

I smiled at Ace, and the smile he gave back to me almost seemed real except for the tears of anger in his eyes.

His hands even shook when it was time to exchange the rings, right along with this voice. Anyone watching would have thought he was obsessed with me, in love even.

If only this marriage wasn’t a farce.

"You may now kiss your bride,” the priest announced.

Ace cupped me by the chin with both hands and very gently pressed a soft kiss to my mouth, his lips moving smoothly over mine. I was thrown off by how gentle the kiss was, how he had the perfect amount of pressure to make it look believable but not so much that I felt like he was about to invade my mouth.

People clapped all around us.

I continued to imagine it was Louis and clung to Ace.

When his tongue met mine. I let out a gasp and kissed him back, my arms wrapping around his neck while he lifted me off the ground.

Cheers and whistles erupted as he ended the kiss and pressed a final one on my nose, my body slid down the front of his.

What a mess.

Because for a second—I forgot about Louis completely.

For a second. It was only Ace.

19

ACE

The one with the smart quotes, if it’s not love it’s just a mess and if it’s a mess someone’s bound to get hurt, and if you’re the someone thinking about the mess, it’s one hundred percent you.