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AIDEN

T here’s something weird in the air tonight. There’s a commotion at the front, but I’m stuck in conversation with one of our largest buyers and I miss what’s happening.

My suit feels too tight and my skin too hot.

Half my attention is with my wife, wherever she is.

I can’t wait to see her in that dress. I wonder if she found the note. I smile to myself, thinking of her finding it, knowing she’ll know what it means.

Mine. My wife. Meant for me.

But she’s not here, and with every passing minute, a feeling of wrongness grows inside my chest.

I turn, looking for her, and see my sister striding for me, her face thundercloud-dark and the papers clutched in her hand.

“What the hell did you do?” she bites out. Tristan appears behind her, his eyes wide with concern.

“Where is she?” My voice is hoarse. “Where is my wife?”

“What did you do, Aiden?” She slams the papers into my chest. “Why did I just run into her crying in the hallway? What the hell are these?”

I take the papers, my stomach sinking as I see what they are. “She was crying?” I lift my gaze to my sister’s tear-stained face.

“This wasn’t the plan,” she bites out. “She wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”

Whit appears, his tie undone, his hair wild. “What happened?”

Sienna rounds on him. “I just ran into Emory. She told me this is always how it was going to end .”

I barely hear my sister’s words over the pulsing of blood in my temples. My eyes are fixed on the papers. She signed.

“Aiden,” Sienna snaps. “What the hell?”

Tristan’s hand lands on my shoulder. “She signed?”

I rub at my chest. “She was never s-supposed to see this. Fuck.” I shove the papers into his hand and scrub my hands over my face. “Fuck.” I press a hand to the wall. It spreads tight, then trembles.

“Stick to the plan,” Whit says. “We stick to the plan. We all marry, we all inherit. You don’t bear this alone.”

“She signed, Whit,” I say tiredly. “If I w-were her I wouldn’t forgive me for this.” I feel sick at the thought of Emory seeing this.

“She said something.”

My head snaps toward Sienna, who is frowning, before she crouches down to where a piece of paper lies on the floor. “She said tell him it does feel like the most natural thing in the world. ”

My stomach bottoms out. Hope races through me, feeling like gasoline in my blood.

“What?”

Sienna rises up. “She told me that before she gave me the papers. Here.” She passes me the single folded sheet. “This was with the other papers.”

I sway forward when I see Emory’s looping handwriting on the front. I open the note, my pulse speeding.

To Aiden’s future wife, it reads.

You lucky bitch. I smile at that and cover my mouth with my hand.

Sorry, I had to get that out.

He’s the best man I know. He will protect you, even at the cost of himself.

If you have a dog, he’ll pretend to hate it, but he’ll secretly give it scraps, even against your direct orders.

He pretends to be cold, but he’s not. He will quietly support you.

Just because it’s always there doesn’t mean you should take it for granted.

He loves the color red. Like, a lot. Proceed with caution.

He’s always listening, even when you don’t realize it.

He doesn’t like events, so you’ll need to be social enough for the both of you.

It might take you time to get to know him, but the process of figuring him out is delicious, and the reward is worth the battle.

Make sure he does things for himself.

Don’t let him sacrifice too much for you without sacrificing things in return.

He will make you incredibly, incandescently happy.

If you love him twice as much as I do, it won’t be half as much as he deserves.

Emory

PS: If you need it, I have a list of birthday gifts for him on my phone.

PPS: If I find out you mocked the stutter, I will end you. It’s hot. Deal with it.

The words settle inside me. They wrap around my lungs, race through my veins, spread through my bloodstream, until they land somewhere near my heart. I’m crying when I finish. My siblings are watching me with weird looks on their faces, both happy and sad and uncertain.

I pass them the note, and they lean in to read it.

“Holy shit, Aiden.” My sister is first to finish. “She loves you. Like really loves you.” Her chin trembles.

Elation chases her words before nerves follow. Emory might not want me. She might not forgive me. I have to try.

I love her.

Emory is worth anything.

“Find her,” Tristan says. “Follow the plan. Nothing changes.”

“We’ll run interference,” Whit adds. “Now go.”

I run.