Page 40 of Avalanche (Endless Winter #3)

Lily

Mom: Hi darling! Sorry it took so long to text you back. Things have been incredibly busy here. But I’d love to talk to you when you have a moment.

Mom: I know we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms, and you might have felt like me and dad were being a bit harsh, but you know we only want the best for you right? We love you so much. You’ll always be our little girl, even though you’re all grown up.

Mom: Do you think you’ll be going to France to live? I’m sure your dad would love to come visit you there if you do. But I hope you come home first, we’d love to see you.

Mom: I sincerely hope you aren’t giving me the silent treatment, just because I didn’t reply to your messages as quickly as you would have liked. That would very immature.

Mom: Missed call.

Mom: Missed call.

Mom: Missed call.

I stare in disbelief as the string of notifications pop up across my screen, panic rising as that number in the little red circle grows and grows.

“You’re popular this morning,” Liam complains from beside me in the bed. The mattress shifts as he rolls, squinting through sleepy eyes to try and see my screen.

“Sorry.” I place the phone screen down on the blankets, holding it against my chest in an attempt to muffle it as another angry sounding string of alerts pings in the darkness before I manage to put it on silent. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“What time is it?” Antoine mumbles, his lips brushing against my bare shoulder as he presses against my other side.

“Six,” I admit with a grimace. Way too early to be up. Certainly way too early to be hit with a barrage of texts. “I shouldn’t have turned on my phone.”

“It’s okay.” Antoine presses a kiss to my shoulder, then reaches over to rest his hand on my stomach beneath the blankets. I sigh at the comforting feel of it, at the press of their bodies on either side of me, their legs alongside mine. “I was going to get up soon anyway.”

“I wasn’t,” Liam snorts, but he’s trailing his fingers along the underside of my breasts, teasing the thin fabric of my sleep shirt, so he can’t be that annoyed. “I was planning on staying in this bed until Matty made breakfast.”

I smile into the darkness, tightening my fingers against my vibrating phone.

It’s our first day off after five full days on the snow—the first day off since Seth came home from the hospital—and I can hardly wait to spend time with the guys.

To have all of us together. It’s been torture going to work each day knowing Seth is at home alone.

“But seriously, who is calling you?” Liam asks when my phone gives another desperate sounding buzz against the covers. “Is there some emergency?”

I let out a tremulous sigh and lift my phone, my mind racing as I try to piece together the meaning behind all my mom’s messages. Her incessant calls. After nearly two months of complete silence and unanswered text messages.

Another message blares across my screen, blue light cutting through the darkness.

Lani: YOU GOT MARRIED!?

Lani: When were you going to tell us?!

Lani: I thought it was a hoax at first when Summer showed me but apparently its for real? I know you’re probably in bed already but please call us when you get up, okay?

Guilt twists in my stomach as I read Lani’s messages. It’s been at least three weeks since I video chatted with my best friends. I’d been so caught up with everything here—training, working, the guys, Seth’s accident—I’d almost forgotten about life back home entirely.

The guilt is quickly overpowered by surprise as I take in the meaning of her words.

“She knows we got married,” I whisper, turning stare at Antoine’s sleepy figure in the dark. “They found out.”

It’s not like it was a secret, exactly. But I haven’t spoken to anyone from home in weeks. I certainly haven’t told anyone that Antoine and I had gotten married so he could try to claim his inheritance.

“What?” Antoine sits up in bed, pulling the covers off me in the process. I shiver, my phone fumbling from my hands as I attempt to hold the blankets in place. Liam grumbles in protest beside me. “What do you mean, they found out?”

I scramble to pick up my phone in the dark, then hold it up so he can see Lani’s text. “I didn’t tell her about it,” I explain as his eyes scan the line of messages from my friend. “I was going to call her, but I just got so busy with work and Seth and…”

And I hadn’t quite worked out how to explain my getting married to someone I’d only known a few months. As open minded as my friends are, they’re also protective. I just couldn’t envisage that conversation going well.

So I haven’t told anyone. Not even Tessa, who I see every day at work.

But somehow, Lani knows.

My mom must know too, I realize, as I flick through her string of texts. Do you think you’ll be going to France to live? I’d missed it the first time, dismissed it in my surprise at seeing anything from her at all. But there it is.

“I think my mom knows too,” I whisper, my fingers tightening around my phone as I glance between Antoine and Liam. “At least, she said something about my going to France…”

“Let me check something.” Liam grabs his own phone from the bedside table, squinting at the overly-bright screen. There’s a brief, tense silence punctuated by fingers tapping and followed by a triumphant huff as he thrusts his phone into Antoine’s hands. “There!” he exclaims. “That explains it.”

I sit up, pressing close beside Antoine, the blankets pooling at my lap. Liam turns to watch us, concern mingling with the mildest hint of amusement as we read the list of headlines.

French pharmaceutical heir finds love on the snow.

Society insider: French heir’s surprise marriage. What do we know about Lily Dean?

Love is in the heir: Pharma heir finds love with American snowboard instructor. But will it last?

“Oh my god,” I breathe, then cringe when Antoine clicks on one of the links.

A photo of me pops up—one from a year ago when I was at the beach with my friends.

I’m mid laugh, with Lani on one side and Summer on the other, all three of us in bikinis.

Behind us, the iconic Lanikai mokes sit amid blue green waters.

It’s picture perfect. One of the very few photos I ever posted on social media. A perfectly acceptable photo.

Just not one I’d wanted to see on a news site.

“Oh my god,” I repeat.

“ Putain de merde ,” Antoine mutters, as he scrolls through the commentary. “ C’est …”

My heart drops to my stomach as I read along with him, my eyes flicking to take in the words as quickly as possible.

Antoine Lafosse, grandson of founder of Bioluxe Pharmaceutical Corp, is set to inherit billions after an intense legal battle shook the French courts.

He has reportedly married American snowboard instructor, Lily Dean, only days before a decision was reached this afternoon declaring the late Lafosse’s last Will and Testament valid.

Inside sources say the marriage took place at a ski resort in the United States, where Mr Lafosse currently resides, with none of the Lafosse family present.

Full details of the Will could not be obtained, but questions were raised during the hearing as to the legitimacy of the marriage, which was allegedly required in order for Mr Lafosse to secure his inheritance.

According to our sources, Lily Dean was enrolled as a law student at the University of Hawaii before moving to Park City, where she currently works as a snowboarding instructor at a ski resort. Her family own a number of small businesses in Hawaii.

“I think she’s just after the money,” one source close to the couple informed us.

An ex-lover of Mr Lafosse, who declined to give his name citing privacy concerns, noted that “Mr Lafosse never gave any indication of being interested in women while [he] was dating him”, bringing into question whether this is a true ‘love’ marriage at all, or whether there are more insidious motives at play…

“You don’t need to read that.” Liam snatches the phone from Antoine’s trembling hands, scowling briefly at the article before turning it face-down on the bedside table.

I stare at Antoine, his expression hard to decipher in the near-darkness.

I think she’s just after the money. Is that what Antoine thinks? Is that what everyone thinks?

“Have you heard anything from your lawyer?” Liam asks, the matter-of-fact question cutting through the silence like a knife.

“Not yet,” Antoine admits. “But I know the case was set to finish yesterday. Or, this morning in France. Which would have been overnight here.”

He scrambles to find his phone from where he dropped it on the floor beside the bed, then draws in a sharp breath.

“ Mon dieu .”

“What is it?” Liam presses against my other side as he attempts to read the message on Antoine’s phone, no longer content with lounging beside us.

“It’s my lawyer,” Antoine breathes. His attention is fixed to the screen of his phone, his green eyes glowing intensely in the blue light, his beautiful features cast in dramatic shadow.

“We won. He says…” He worries his lower lip with his teeth, fingers trembling as he scrolls through the message.

“He says the court accepted the validity of our marriage. Of the Will. Everything.” He turns to face me, a wide, incredulous grin flashing white in the darkness, his bare chest trembling with ragged breaths.

“We did it! Lily. Ma puce . My wonderful, wonderful Lily...”

And then he’s hauling me against him, his lips crashing against my own. His phone fumbles to the bedding between us, the light spinning and casting long shadows on the walls. I melt against him, meeting his hungry kisses, stunned and trembling.

When he finally releases me, I’m completely breathless, my mind a confused storm of gratitude and love and lust and uncertainty.

“You know it isn’t true, right?” he says, pulling back to stare intently into my face.

His hands grip my shoulders, his own chest rising and falling with panting breaths that seem to echo my own racing heart.

“That article, I mean. I think I know who that was, the man they interviewed. I barely dated him.”

He pauses, giving Liam a sheepish look, before dropping his gaze to the space between us.

“I barely dated anyone before you both.” His eyes flick back up to mine, desperation glowing bright.

“I’m crazy about you, Lily. Madly in love with you.

What we have, what we did—it wasn’t just so I could claim my inheritance.

You know that, right? Please tell me you know that? ”

My entire body softens beneath his words, melting like sand beneath waves as his words weave between us, like thread stitching up the tears left by the sharp words of that article.

“I know.” My voice is a raspy whisper, a gentle murmur in the darkness. “I know you do. I love you too.”

I feel my lips curve as I think about the article again. One source close to the couple informed us… But of course no one outside the six of us even knew we were getting married at all, except for Seth’s parents, and I doubt they would contact the tabloids.

“Your lawyer says you can sue for defamation,” Liam announces. “In his email. At least, I think that’s what he says. I had to put it through Google translate.”

Antoine blinks in surprise, his lips parting around a gasp of mock indignation when he sees Liam casually holding his phone, apparently reading through the letter from his lawyer.

Liam ignores him. “He says there have been a number of news sources which have made harmful statements about you and Lily’s relationship, and that he’s happy to pursue defamation proceedings against them should you wish.”

“I bet he is,” Antoine snorts, grabbing his phone from Liam and thrusting it onto the mattress on his other side. “If they’re all as bad as that last article, he’ll make a killing in legal fees.”

“You should look into it,” Liam says, frowning. “I don’t like to see people saying that shit about you.”

Antoine shrugs. “It won’t last. Trust me.” He shoots Liam a reassuring smile, but his lips tremble at the corners. “The tabloids will get bored of it after a few days.”

He’s probably right. The tabloids will get bored.

But my parents won’t.

I frown, thinking of my mom’s string of texts, of those missed calls.

Part of me—the part of me that loves my parents, the part of me that want’s their approval and has been desperately hoping for them to respond to my messages—is itching to call her back.

But what would I even say? What do I say to parents who turned off their love for me when they finally turn it back on again?

Was it even love to begin with?

“The question is…” Liam wraps his arms around me and hauls me onto his lap. I give a gasp of surprise and he presses open mouthed kisses to the side of my neck—demanding, bruising things that have all thoughts of my parents scattering like snowflakes on the wind.

“The question is,” he says again, and I can feel the shape of his grin against my throat, “who is going to tell Eddie that you’re married to a billionaire?”