And in Miles’s eyes, I saw it—that flicker of old memories coming back to haunt.
I’d liked how he saw things—tilted, funny, unsanitized. I liked that he noticed details, the same way I did. That he made chaos seem charming. I liked how he saw me.
Until he didn’t.
My hand trembled as I held Miles’s.
His palm was warm. Solid. Familiar in a way that made my stomach knot.
I wanted to hate the way his touch felt solid when everything inside me felt like it was fracturing.
But I couldn’t. Because I remembered what it felt like to be held together by him.
Do not cry. Do not shake. Do not run.
Mayor Castillo cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Serena Colette King and Miles Donovan Whitmore in marriage.”
My name didn’t feel like mine.
But I nodded anyway. I could nod. I could recite the script. I could survive this.
King Developments was all that mattered. That company wasmine.I couldn’t lose it. What would I be without it?
“Marriage is a commitment to life together,” Mayor Castillo continued. “It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other human relationship can equal, a physical and emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime.”
I would have felt better if the mayor just gave the cheap, generic vows and let us get the hell on with this sham.
I made myself look Miles in the eye. I hope he knew I’d never be his, I needed to remind myself to not let those pesky emotions come back. But his eyes…they were still impossibly kind, impossibly open, full of wonder. He’d been through hell, and now he was marrying someone who didn’t deserve him.
“Do you, Miles, take Serena to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, as long as you both shall live?”
“I do,” he said.
“And do you, Serena, take Miles to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, as long as you both shall live or this business arrangement runs its course?”
I wasn’t about to lose it.
This was a game I had to win. I had to prove I was a champion.
To my mother. To Jenese.
The silence was deafening, and I felt everyone staring. Mama’s glare, Daddy’s frown, Laurene’s thinned lips, and Gigi’s arched brow.
“I do,” I said, resolute.
Nothing was going to stop me from making King Developments the number one real estate company in this townandstate.
“I officially declare you husband and wife.”
Miles and I stared at each other, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. I hated that I still felt something standing this close to him.
I hated I couldn’t name what it was.
“You can kiss your bride,” Dante said, but gave us a very strange look.
Miles hesitated before finally cupping my face—if you could even call it that. His fingers barely grazed my skin, more like adoctor assessing a patient rather than a man about to kiss his wife.
I remembered the first time he kissed me, under the magnolia tree behind the tennis courts at his parents’ home.
