Page 113 of Tainted Love

‘It’s about time!’

I shift my focus to the door of the farm where Amanda stands, handing baby Penny to Williams, who carefully takes hold of her head and lifts her onto his chest. He’s still terrified of her.

‘What are you doing here?’ I ask.

‘Ask him,’ she says, looking at Gregory, who shrugs.

‘A surprise,’ he says.

Amanda shakes her head then yanks my hand, pulling me into the house, dragging me upstairs to the master bedroom.

‘Surprise!’ Julia and Lucas squeal in unison. They look as glamorous out of work as they do in Harrods.

‘What on earth? What are you two doing here?’

Then I spot Sandy, holding up a large, cream clothes bag. Little men do jiggery in my abdomen.

‘Is that what I think it is?’

She grins and Amanda draws the zip of the bag to the floor. ‘Happy wedding day, bestie,’ she says, pulling out a wedding dress.Mywedding dress.

After the shooting, I was covered in cuts and bruises; I didn’t want a wedding just weeks later like Lara had planned. And that gave us time, me time to tell Gregory that I didn’t want a big wedding at all. I didn’t want three hundred and fifty guests that didn’t know us and didn’t care whether we were in love or not.

I run my hand over the crystal-encrusted lace. Julia fans out the train so I can see the complete look: an intricate strapless dress with a small train.

I’d told him I’d plan but maybe next year. I didn’t want Lara to create some masterpiece that just wasn’tusand I wanted to be able to concentrate on my role at GJR for a while.We bickered just weeks ago because I hadn’t made any progress. He told me he wanted the world to know I was his wife.

Lucas holds up a cathedral veil on the opposite side of the room. ‘Let’s get you ready.’

I bite down on my lip, feeling and thinking too many things to get a hold on any single one. ‘I’m getting married?’

‘You sure are,’ Julia sings.

He wasn’t joking. He threatened to take it out of my hands, so he could make me his as soon as possible. Part of me wanted it to be true but I didn’t think he’d really do it.

‘Holy shit.’

‘Mouth, young lady,’ Sandy snaps.

‘Sorry. But holy shit!’

I should have known. When Gregory wants something, he gets it.

Julia, Lucas and Carrie – a beautician and stylist I’ve never met – work wonders. When they’re satisfied with my complete look and leave to make their way downstairs, I’m left with Sandy and Amanda, now changed into dresses they picked themselves: Amanda in emerald green, Sandy in a deep shade of purple.

‘You look beautiful,’ I tell them.

‘Let’s get you in that dress,’ Sandy says.

They help me navigate my way, pulling me into the tight elastic of the bodice and zipping me up, before clipping on a chiffon train and pushing the cathedral veil into my pinned-up curls.

‘Gregory asked us to give you this.’ Amanda opens a large, navy velour box to reveal a thick diamond choker. ‘It’s your something new.’

I laugh becauseeverythingis new.

‘And, if you’d like to, I’d like you to wear this as your something borrowed and something blue.’ Sandy unhooks a delicate sapphire bracelet that my dad and I gave her as a gift for her thirtieth birthday.

I hold out my wrist, not able to speak and unable to fasten the bracelet with my shaking fingers.