CHAPTER 3 TESSA

I finally collapse in the back row of the chapel. I need a drink but I’m still fucking pregnant.

“The JustFans thing,” I say to Tiffany. “It was you all along.”

Her eyes dart nervously to the sex club girl whose name still escapes me.

“And you,” I say, my eyes moving over to her. “The girl from the club whose name I can’t remember. How do you calculate into all this?”

“Brandi,” she says, holding a hand to her chest like I care. She grins. “That was my idea.” The way she says it makes it seem like she’s proud of that fact.

My brows dip. “ Your idea? It was your idea for someone to impersonate me online on some porn site?” I struggle as I stand to yell my next word. “Why?”

“A porn site?” my mom echoes, standing beside me.

“It’s a long story,” Brandi says, ignoring my mom. “But as it turns out, Savannah hooked us up and Tiff is a good friend of mine now.”

“You’re…you’re…” I sputter.

“Besties,” Brandi fills in. “Savannah and I met ages ago here in Vegas, probably even before Tristan and I met. But these two met at your little fair thingie and we just—”

“Joined forces,” Savannah finishes. “It was my idea, actually, for the three of us to work together to break you up. I tried to get Christine Foster on board, too, but she blocked my number. And then I happened upon that very interesting information about you giving up a baby all those years ago.” She flips her hair over her shoulder, and she’s so damn smug standing in the middle of the aisle, my aisle, that rage fills me.

Before I can make a move toward her, though, Sue steps out into the aisle, and she lifts her hand and slaps Savannah across the face.

The loud sound echoes in the room, and Russ makes a move to stand behind his wife in a show of support.

“Shame on you,” she says to her former daughter-in-law. “I never liked you, but you’ve proven today just what a horrible choice my son made when he married you in the first place. And you,” she says, spinning around to turn toward Brandi, “dressed like a streetwalker in this nice chapel…my son would never even give you the time of day. And I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” she says, turning to Tiffany, “but your obsession with my son and Tessa is totally out of hand. It has to stop.”

She walks down the aisle past the offending women and stops in front of me. My heart pounds in my chest as I fear what her words to me are going to be.

And then her eyes soften as she takes my hands in hers. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, Tessa. I can’t say I’m not devastated by what we’ve learned today, and it breaks my heart that you’ve kept this from us as long as you have. But I know you, and I know your mother.” She snags her bottom lip between her teeth just like her son does as she tries to hold it together. “I wish things came to light in a different way, but it doesn’t matter that you didn’t marry him today. You are family, and we will work through this together.”

She wraps her arms around me, and I sag against her in relief.

“Thank you,” I sob.

Russell hugs me next. “Life is short, kiddo. We fix our mistakes…even when they weren’t ours to make.”

I know he’s right.

I’m just not sure how, exactly, I’m supposed to fix this one.

Travis and Luke walk back into the chapel, both out of breath.

“Couldn’t find him,” Travis says, and he slides into the back row of the groom’s side. He pulls his phone out of his pocket while Luke joins Ellie. “I’ll try texting again.”

“I have his phone,” Sue says quietly. “He handed it to me before pictures, so wherever he is…he’s without his phone.”

“Shit,” Travis mutters.

“Any ideas where he might’ve gone?” my mom asks.

“His room?” I suggest.

Travis shakes his head. “Tried that.”

“We checked the bars around the hotel and out front, too,” Luke says.

“I have an idea of where he might be,” Brandi says, and I glare at her.

She’s wrong.

He would not go to a sex club on the day his wedding was ruined.

“Shut up,” I say to her. She’s not supposed to talk about the club, anyway, and I’m certain he wouldn’t want his parents knowing about it.

Travis shakes his head at Brandi, and I glance over at him. His eyes meet mine, and that’s when I know. He’s a member, too, and some mutual understanding seems to pass between us where he knows I know about it.

What other things happen underground with celebrities that the general public has absolutely no knowledge of?

“Maybe he went up to our room,” I suggest, but it’s a stupid thought. He ran out of the chapel to get away from me. He wouldn’t run straight upstairs to the one place where we could be alone. Baby girl kicks me in the ribs again, and I gasp. The dress suddenly feels too tight, and I feel like I just want to go lay down. It’s been a taxing day, and I’m supposed to be taking it easy.

None of this is taking it easy.

“I need some air,” I say, and I dart out of the chapel. I head up the elevator to our suite just to check, and when I finally get to the room, it’s empty.

I chug an entire bottle of water, and then I sit alone in a chair in the bedroom where we were supposed to spend our night making love to one another as a profound sadness over everything I’ve lost washes over me.