Page 92 of Accidental Groom

I exhale roughly, the anger in me morphing at lightning speed. It’s all adrenaline now, coursing through my veins so fast I’m actually worried I’ll trigger a goddamn heart attack. It’s anxiety, it’s panic, it’s an all-consuming worry. “She’s gone,” I choke. “She’s gone, I don’t know where she is. I mean, I do, she’s in Philly, but I don’t knowwhere?—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down,” Grace says, stepping out the door in her slippers before pulling it closed behind her. “What do you mean?”

“We had an argument this morning and she called Matthew to put her on a jet to Philadelphia,” I explain, checking my lockscreen just in case she’d called back and I’d somehow missed the incessant vibrations. Nothing.

“What?” Grace’s eyes go wide, her brows reaching halfway up her forehead. “What’s in Philadelphia?”

“I don’t know,” I rasp. “I don’t know, Grace. She didn’t mention to him where she was staying, and Matthew thought I knew.”

She blinks rapidly, her gaze going off into the middle distance, thinking. “I mean, I think I saw a car this morning?—”

“Yeah, there was a car at the gate,” I confirm. “Around seven thirty. I opened the gates, assuming it was for George.”

“Shit.” She pushes her hair back from her face, her gaze finding mine again. “What did you do?”

My jaw tightens as I fight back the urge to say it wasn’t my fault. It absolutely was, and I know damn well that it was, but I hate that she’s assumed that anyway. “I was an asshole,” I admit.“Her phone was going off at ten to six, and I woke up, checked it for her in case it was her sister. It was just a reminder for her to take her prenatal vitamins, but then I gotcurious?—”

“Oh, god,” she recoils. “You went through her phone?”

I purse my lips. “Yeah,” I sigh. “She walked in on me looking through her texts. George put this shit in my head about some guy called Ross, and then I found texts from the same name in her phone, and they looked — god, they looked suspicious, and I freaked out.”

“Youdidn’t. Harry, you idiot.”

“I fucked up,” I breathe. “I… ugh, I asked if our daughter was mine. Ifuckedup.”

She stares at me in shock, her mouth parted, blinking as if she’s so appalled she can’t even speak.

“I know. I don’t need a lecture,” I add.

She nods, half to herself, I imagine. “Wow.”

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded,” I say, shoving my phone in my pocket and scrubbing my face with my hands. “Or maybe I did. No, I definitely did. I was angry, and she was being evasive, and I… I don’t know, it came out before I could stop it.”

She crosses her arms. “I’m not surprised she ran off.”

I level a glare at her. “She asked for space, not for a goddamn adventure. I thought she’d cool off, thought I could talk to her about it tonight, apologize, but clearly, no.”

I huff something that sounds like a laugh, but far more broken.

“She won’t come back. Christ, she won’t come back, not after this,” I mutter, leaning back on the deck’s railing.

“Why on earth did you react like that?” she asks. Her hand comes up, hitting me square in the chest like we’re ten years old and she’s bullying me again. “What was so bad that it prompted that?”

“She’d texted him that she wished things had turned out differently.”

She blinks at me. “Weren’t you two just arguing a few days ago? It was probably about that,” she says.

I nod. “That’s what she told me.”

“That doesn’t mean she wants him, Harry. People say that kind of thing all the time when they’re overwhelmed with life. And Elena’s been understandably really overwhelmed lately.”

“I know.” I slip my phone out of my pocket, checking again. Still nothing. “I need to drive down there.”

“No.”

I glare at her. “Grace. She’s mywife. I’m not just going to sit here when I have no idea if she’s okay.”

“She’s thirty and she’s pregnant and she’s got a stable head on her shoulders,” she says. “She wouldn’t do something that would put her in danger. You know that. I know that. You’re not going to chase her down when she’s clearly needing a fuck ton more space than you thought.”