Page 96 of Accidental Groom

Chapter 34

Harry

The meeting is halfway over when I stop hearing what Ralph White is saying.

His voice drones through the speakers like a swarm of wasps behind glass — muted, persistent, and irritating beyond measure. He’s talking about logistics, annual review boards, and a new distribution opportunity on the West Coast that I absolutely do not care about. He wants to tighten exclusivity language in the marketing clause of our merger, then something about packaging aesthetics.

I nod when I’m meant to. Grunt when I should. But I haven’t looked at the screen in minutes.

She’s still not answering me.

It’s been two days. Forty-nine hours and thirty-eight minutes since my jet touched down in Philly with her on board, to be exact. I know. I’ve been counting. I check my texts every five minutes like it might suddenly change, like the typing bubble will magically pop up out of nowhere. But there’s nothing. Just my last ten or so messages, the last one staring me down:

Me:

I’m sorry. Please just call me. Please. I want to talk, I want to know you’re safe.

The door to my office opens without a knock, and I turn in my chair, ignoring Ralph’s nonstop chatter. Matthew stands in the doorway, holding his phone like it might explode, his face a contorted mixture of concern and regret.

“What?” I ask. “What is it?”

“I… I looked into Ross Emery,” he says carefully.

My chest tightens. I turn back to Ralph and hold up a single finger. “Give me one moment,” I say to him, but I’m not entirely sure he’s heard me. He’s still talking. I put myself on mute and move my screen away, letting him stare at my bookshelf, then turn back to Matthew. “Tell me.”

“I wasn’t able to get much at first,” he swallows uncomfortably, shifting on his feet. “He’s got a pretty low profile. He doesn’t have social media. He was in the military briefly, but wasn’t deployed. He was given desk work, stationed in Albany.”

My brows knit. “Okay…?”

“I found a marriage license,” Matthew says, his voice going quiet. “Ten years ago. Elena White and Ross Emery. They divorced two years later. No fault. No contest, no children, but no details.”

I swear, the entire room tilts.

My stomach sinks so badly I feel like I’m going to throw up.Married. Divorced.That can’t be right.

Matthew places the phone on the desk in front of me, the screen lit up with the record. I scroll through the information, but none of it reaches my head, none of it makes sense to me.

“This can’t be correct,” I breathe.

“It… It is.”

I sit back slowly, the leather of the chair groaning under the shift. I feel like my head is folding in on itself.

Ten years ago. She was twenty.

Sometimes I just wish things had turned out differently.

I’m going to vomit. I’m going to vomit, or I’m going to break something, orsomeone?—

“Should I go?” Matthew asks, but I’m already moving.

I turn my computer back to myself, unmuting my microphone. Ralph’s mid-sentence, pontificating about shelf appeal in Highcourt Hotel’s bars, when I cut him off.

“Did you know?”

His mouth keeps moving for a second before he registers the tense shift. My words weren’t kind. They weren’t casual. They were loud, angry, and terrified. “Pardon?”

“Did you know that Elena was married before?” I grip the edge of my desk hard enough to hear the wood creak.