29. Hunter

There wasn't a single part of me that could appreciate how beautiful Charlotte looked as she stood in front of me, small and coiled in on herself as if she were a child who had just been caught drawing on the walls. I was too pissed.

The suspicion I'd felt when I'd found the two of them behind the delivery truck outside of the offices was accurate to some degree. I should have trusted my gut then, should have seen the signs instead of letting my feelings paint her in a rose-colored light. I'd been fucked over again.

"You were working with him." It wasn't a question. "How much did you tell him, Charlotte? How much was he paying you?"

She blinked at me, confusion warping her features. If she could fake feelings for me, then she could fake that, too. "What are you talking about?"

The possibilities were endless. Maybe every piece of it, from the very beginning, had been a lie. Maybe they were never broken up. They could still be together for all I knew, and Jared could be happy as a clam to have his partner married off for a year if it meant taking over the Harris Agricultural Empire.

"Hunter—"

"How much did you tell him about the fucking business?" My breaths came too quick, too shallow. We were meant to be walking down the aisle in two minutes, and yet, I wanted nothing more than to take myself home and hide away until I could forget her. No matter how long it took.

She took a small step back, her heel clicking against the tile floor. "Nothing," she said. "I wasn't working with him, Hunter."

The room suddenly felt too small. They called it the library, but a library was a place of calm, somewhere to relax. If only that was the case.

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. I've never lied to you."

A sick, angry laugh snaked up my throat. How did she expect me to believe that? "Bullshit."

"Where's that empathy you had back in Austin?" she spat. Her arms crossed over her chest, forcing my attention for half a second to the gown that covered her skin. The fact that I liked the sight of her in a wedding dress made me feel nauseous. "You know that's who I was talking about, right? Jared?"

The words hit me like a storm, knocking me back half a step. I'd almost forgotten about that in the wave of chaos that had followed; the way she'd sobbed and gasped for breath through tears, the way she'd bared everything to me at that goddamn table. She hadn't given me a name when I'd asked, and before she could, Dana had called about her father.

But was any of that real?

I pushed my hand through my hair, likely ruining whatever the stylist had done to it earlier. "I want an explanation."

"I've already told you everything. What does it matter anyway?" The irritation that took over her expression barely hid what lay beneath the surface—hurt, betrayal, and anger. "It's not like we're getting married because we love each other, right?"

"It matters because Jared has been doing everything in his fucking power to take down my business." I flexed my hands, giving the muscles a stretch.

Her brows raised. "I didn't know that."

"I don't believe you. Have you been feeding him information?"

Something akin to shock rippled across her face. "You don't believe me?"

"No. I don't. It's incredibly convenient, Charlotte. The man who has been stealing clients left and right and feeding them lie upon lie is linked to you, whether he's your ex or your boyfriend or whatever," I rasped, taking another step toward her until I was towering over her small frame. She didn't dare take a step back. "You've come into my life and managed to turn my whole goddamn world upside down."

"I have nothing to do with him." Her chin jutted out as she steeled her jaw, doing her best to look strong as she looked up at me. "I hate him more than you could ever understand. We weren't engaged, you know that. You know what he did to me. But if you want to take his word over your wife's?—"

"You're not my wife," I snapped. Something broke a little inside of me as the words slipped past my lips. "And though you may be on paper after today, don't think that means anything."

Her eyes went glossy, her lips pursed together as she sucked in a breath. "So exactly the same as you were wanting it to be twenty minutes ago?"

She was just pushing my buttons now. The temptation to say that hadn'tbeen what I wanted twenty minutes ago was nearly overwhelming as I took a step back, taking in the full sight of her in her gown for a split second before turning away. "Just because I hesitated?—"

"Don't. It's pointless now."

I watched her fidget with the horseshoe around her neck in the mirror. All I'd originally wanted was for today to go well for her sake, for her dad's sake, but with everything that had come out I was finding it hard to still want that. It was easier to loathe her, to see her as this evil in my life who only wanted me for my money and my family's business.

I leaned onto the wooden desk, watching her intently in the mirror behind it. If this was how it was going to be, I had free reign to be as heartless as I wanted to. "I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you that we need to readjust the terms of you obtaining forty-nine percent of the horse breeding side."

Her mouth popped open. "What the hell does that mean?"

"I didn't realize how important it was to my father. We'll need to come up with a lower figure."

"Like forty-eight percent?"

"Think more along the lines of single digits, Lots."

She crossed the room in a second, holding up the bottom of her dress with one hand as her face contorted in anger. "You fucking selfish asshole," she seethed. Her hand wrapped around my bicep, tugging me and turning me to face her. "This whole thing, all of it, it's just a joke to you, isn't it,? This is my future you're messing with. You can't just go back on what we agreed on, you promised me!"

"Is it really as bad as what you've done?" I asked, my voice surprisingly level for the amount of irritation boiling my blood.

Big blue eyes looked up at me, her lower lip quivering, and for a second, I almost wanted to kiss it. "You don't give a shit about me, do you? All you care about is becoming CEO. I'm just a pawn, that's all I ever was."

You're not just a pawn. You were everything. I steeled my jaw.

She shook her head in disbelief and dropped her hold on me, taking a step toward the door. "You are fucking horrible, Hunter Harris. You're lucky I care more about breaking my father's heart than my own."

"What does that mean?"

"That means we walk down the goddamn aisle," she rasped. "You marry me. You made your bed, you lie in it. But after today, we're fucking over. No more sex, no more romance, nothing. We'll divorce in a year like we planned. A beautiful, perfect, loveless marriage."

I hated that my chest ached at the thought, hated that there was a part of me that wanted her despite it all. I couldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, and yet, I'd grown far too fond of her.

I stepped past her and toward the door, resigning myself to my fate. "Fine," I said. "Just what I wanted." Slamming the door behind me, I left her to gather herself and made my way toward the ceremony hall, plastering the fakest, love-bombed smile I could muster on my face, and greeting the guests as they took their seats.

We'd get married.

We'd hate each other.

We'd divorce.