chapter Twelve
Liam was worried about Francesca. As she’d walked down the aisle toward him, she was literally the most beautiful bride he’d ever seen. The white gown was quite flattering against the warm color of her skin and it fit her curves like a glove.
For a moment, it had all become a little too real. His breath had caught in his throat. His mouth had gone bone-dry. His heart had raced a thousand miles an hour in his chest. Francesca was about to be his wife. And in that instant, he’d wanted her to be in every sense of the word.
It was a strange feeling. One he hadn’t experienced before. He’d been fond of a lot of women over the years. He genuinely liked and respected Francesca. That was probably as close to “love” as he’d ever gotten. Marriage hadn’t crossed his mind yet. He assumed he would get to that point in his life eventually. The Queen Bee had just accelerated his schedule.
Liam wasn’t sure if it was the flowers or the music. The way she looked in that dress or the happy tears of his mother. But he was committed to the moment. He was excited to marry Francesca. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe…maybe there could be more than just a business arrangement between them. A real relationship.
He was snapped back to reality by the stony expression on Francesca’s face. There was no happy, bridal glow. No tears of joy. No smile of excitement. She didn’t look outright unhappy; she was covering it well, but Liam knew she was on the edge. The reality of lying to all their friends and family must be weighing heavily on her. He understood. That was why he’d given her the option not to go through with the marriage. But she’d insisted. She wasn’t the type of woman to go back on her word. She would choke it down and do what had to be done.
Since they’d left the bridal suite, she’d become like a robot. She smiled, she went through the motions, but her dark eyes were dead. He wasn’t sure what would happen when she couldn’t hold in her emotions any longer. But he knew it wouldn’t be pretty.
Fortunately, they were able to lose themselves in the smiles, handshakes and hugs of the receiving line. After that, the reception should be fairly short. With little notice, Scarlet and Ariella had only been able to arrange a catered hors d’oeuvres and cocktail reception. No band or dancing, no five-course sit-down dinner. Just an hour or so of mingling and cake, and then everyone would be on their way. It should be fairly simple to get through it without drama.
The last few guests came through the line and Liam and Francesca were able to leave their stations. He put his arm around her waist and leaned into her. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
Her wary eyes looked to him and she nodded. “I’m just a little overwhelmed.”
“Do you want me to get you a drink?”
“Yes,” she said with emphasis. “Please.”
Liam left her side to get them both something from the bar. He was returning with a glass in both hands when he caught an unwelcome sight out of the corner of his eye. Hayden Black and Angelica Pierce were chatting. No, that wasn’t the right word. They were having a discussion that verged on heated, if Angelica’s stiff posture and tight mouth were any indication. What was she thinking, having a conversation with the investigator out to prove she was guilty? This couldn’t be good.
As far as Liam knew, Angelica hadn’t been called to testify before the congressional committee about the hacking scandal. He assumed it was because Hayden hadn’t been able to piece together the details of her involvement. Or at least, to prove it. The suspicion of her guilt was nothing Liam could act on. He needed hard evidence to fire her, and if Angelica was involved, she had been very, very careful. She wasn’t stupid. She was a ruthless, cunning reporter willing to do nearly anything to get the big story. He appreciated her ambition. But not her moral code.
Secretly, he hoped Hayden would find what he needed. Liam was nervous running ANS with Angelica still in his employ. He needed a reason to cut her loose permanently.
Their discussion was getting a little more animated. Liam searched the room for Ariella and Scarlet, but he didn’t see them or the security they’d hired. He might have to intervene on this situation himself. Francesca’s drink would have to wait.
As Liam got closer to them, he could hear what they were saying a little better. They were trying to speak quietly, but their passions were getting the best of them. At least, Angelica’s were. Hayden was always very calm and collected.
“I find it laughable that people seem to think you were behind this whole thing,” Hayden said. “As though the peroxide-bleached brain cells you have left could plan something more intricate than what kind of shoes to wear with what outfit.”
A flush of anger rose to Angelica’s cheeks. Her eyes narrowed at Hayden. She didn’t notice Liam approaching them because she was so focused on their argument. “You think you’re so smart, Hayden, but I’m not going to fall for your tricks. Is calling me a dumb blonde the best you’ve got? I expected better of you. All men see is what women want them to see. The hair and the makeup and the clothes blind you to the truth. But don’t let appearances fool you. We may have the same hair color, but I’m not sweet and pliable like your precious Lucy. I earned my place at the company. It wasn’t because my stepfather owned the network.”
Liam expected Hayden to take offense at the insults Angelica was levying at his fiancée, but it didn’t seem to faze him. “Yes,” he agreed, “but Lucy has something you’ll never have no matter how hard you work or how many people you trample.”
Angelica nearly snorted with contempt. “And what’s that? The love of a man like you?”
“Nope. Her daddy’s undying affection. She’s the beautiful little girl he always wanted. The one he raised as his own. He bought her ponies and went to her ballet recitals. He got her a convertible on her sixteenth birthday. I bet it breaks his heart that he’ll be in jail and can’t walk Lucy down the aisle when we get married.”
Angelica stiffened beside him, but she brushed off his words with a shrug of indifference. “So what? Her stepfather spoiled her. Am I supposed to be jealous of her for that?”
“No. But you might be jealous because he didn’t have to bribe people to keep Lucy a secret. He wasn’t embarrassed of her.”
“I don’t know what you’re insinuating,” she said slowly, although the tone of her voice said otherwise. It was cold and flat, issuing a silent warning to Hayden.
It made Liam wonder what they were really talking about. He’d heard that Lucy and Angelica hadn’t gotten along, but Lucy had left ANS to work with Hayden before he took over. He certainly didn’t know anything about Angelica’s past or her family. Why did Lucy’s relationship with Graham make Angelica so angry?
Hayden really seemed to know how to push her buttons. Was he rattling her cage for amusement or was he trying to get her to make a mistake? Liam turned to his left and spied the wedding videographer, a field cameraman from ANS. Perfect. He waived the man over.
“I want you to very quietly, subtly, record their conversation. She can’t know you’re taping them.”
The camera man worked on ANS investigations and undercover stings, so he was likely more comfortable doing this than taping greetings for the bride and groom. He eased into the crowd, coming up from behind Angelica, partially hidden by the towering wedding cake beside them.
Liam watched Hayden’s gaze fall on the video camera for an instant, then back to Angelica. They both knew this was their chance to catch her at something when she didn’t expect it.
“Admit it, Angelica. All this hacking business had nothing to do with presidential scandals or career-launching headlines. It was just a high-profile distraction to get what you were really after. The truth is that you were trying to ruin him. Getting your revenge, at last.”
Liam held his breath, waiting to see where this conversation might go when she thought no one else was watching.
“That’s a ridiculous, unfounded accusation. Graham was a lousy boss with questionable ethics, but he was hardly a blip on my radar. I’ve got better things to do with my time than try to ruin someone like him. In time, they always ruin themselves.”
“It’s interesting you would say that. But I’ve got a stack of pictures that say otherwise. Pictures of you modified to remove your fancy hairdo and contact lenses. It made me think of something Rowena Tate told me. She mentioned that you reminded her of a troubled, unstable girl at her private school. The girl had always gloated about her rich father, but he never showed up for parent weekends. He just mailed a check.”
“I didn’t go to private school,” Angelica said, her jaw clenched tighter with every word he said.
“I did a little research and found old school records showing her tuition was paid for by Graham Boyle. Isn’t that odd? He’s always told people he didn’t have any children of his own. It must’ve been hard growing up knowing your father didn’t want anything to do with you. That you were just a mistake that could be fixed with enough money. If it were me, I’d want revenge, too.”
“Shut up, Hayden.”
“He didn’t even recognize you when you came to work at ANS, did he? Sure, you looked different, but a father should be able to recognize his own daughter, right? Then you had to sit back and watch him fawn over Lucy, a child that wasn’t even his.”
“I don’t have to listen to your wild stories. You’re obviously grasping at straws.” She shook her head, turning to walk away from their discussion.
“The sad thing is that you went to all this trouble, ruined so many lives, and in the end, you failed.”
Angelica stopped dead in her tracks. She swung back to him, her eyes wide and furious. “Oh, really? What makes you think this isn’t exactly the way I planned it? Those fools they arrested, Brandon and Troy, will take the fall for the wiretaps. All the evidence shows that Marnie Salloway orchestrated it. Graham Boyle is going to rot in prison and his precious network will be destroyed before too long. It sounds pretty perfect to me. My only regret is that in the end, I couldn’t find a way to get Lucy’s hands dirty enough to send her to jail with dear old dad.”
“But he didn’t go to jail because he loved you and wanted to protect you. It was pure guilt.”
“I don’t need his love,” she snapped. “I’ve gotten this far in life without it. What I did need was to see that bastard brought to his knees. And I got that.”
Hayden smiled wide and turned toward the cameraman. “You get that, Tom?”
The videographer pulled away from his lens and nodded. “Every single word.”
Angelica’s jaw dropped open, her skin flushing crimson in anger. “You bastard!” she shrieked. “You deliberately set me up. If you think I’m going to let you ruin my career with no physical proof of my involvement with the hacking, you’ve got another think coming. Even with that tape, no one will believe you.”
Hayden just shook his head. “I didn’t have to ruin your career. Like you said, in time, people always ruin themselves. I just happened to get that moment on film. I’m pretty sure ANS will terminate you when I show them that tape. And the FBI and congressional committee will find it very interesting. Soon, people will start rolling on you to cut a better deal for themselves. There’s no loyalty among criminals. You’ll be wearing matching orange jumpsuits with your daddy in no time.”
Graham Boyle was Angelica’s father? Liam frowned in confusion but was jerked away from his thoughts when Angelica reared back and slapped Hayden. He barely reacted to the assault, simply shaking his head and looking at her with pity in his eyes. “It’s a shame you wasted your whole life on this. I feel sorry for you.”
By now, a large crowd of the wedding guests had gathered around the argument. More witnesses. The more people that gathered, the higher Angelica’s blood pressure seemed to climb. “I don’t want your pity,” she spat.
Liam watched her fingertips curl and uncurl as she tried to keep control, but she was unraveling quickly. At last, she reached out, and before anyone could stop her, she grabbed a large fistful of wedding cake. Less than a second later, she flung it at Hayden, silencing him with a wet slap.
“What are you looking at?” she screamed at the crowd. She grabbed more cake in each hand and started launching it at the crowd. Buttercream icing flew through the air, pelting the wedding guests. They screamed and scattered. Liam checked to ensure Francesca, Aunt Beatrice and his mother were out of the line of fire, but Henry wasn’t so lucky. He took a large piece of cake to the front of his suit. But he only laughed, scraping it off his shirt and taking it in stride. After forty years with Beatrice, flying cake was probably nothing.
Before Liam could turn to get help, two burly security officers rushed past him. Angelica’s eyes went wild when she saw them. She started kicking and screaming when they tried to restrain her.
“Don’t you touch me!” she howled. “Let me go!”
Liam could only watch in amazement as she wrenched herself from the men’s grasp, only to stumble backward into the cake table. It turned over, taking Angelica and the cake with it. Angelica landed smack-dab in the middle of the towering confection, coating her from hair to rear in buttercream. She roared in anger, flailing as she tried to get up and couldn’t. When she did stand again, it was only with the help of the guards gripping her upper arms.
On her feet, she was a dripping mess. Her perfectly curled blond hair was flat and greasy with white clumps of frosting. Icing was smeared across her face and all over her purple dress. She huffed and struggled in her captors’ arms, but there was no use. They had her this time. At last, Angelica had gotten herself into a situation she couldn’t weasel out of.
“You know,” Hayden said, “looking like that, I’m surprised people didn’t see the resemblance before.”
Angelica immediately stilled and her face went as pale as the frosting. “I don’t look anything like her.”
“Oh, come on, Madeline. There’s no sense lying anymore about who you really are.”
The calm in her immediately vanished. “Never call me that name. Do you hear me? Never! Madeline Burch is dead. Dead. I am Angelica Pierce, you understand? Angelica Pierce!” she repeated, as though that might make it true.
Several people gasped in the crowd. Cara stood stock-still a few feet away with Max protectively at her side. “Rowena and I went to Woodlawn Academy with Madeline,” she said before turning to Angelica. “We were right. It is you.”
“You shut up,” Angelica spat. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“You’re right. I don’t,” Cara answered.
The guards then escorted a wildly thrashing Angelica—or Madeline—out of the ballroom. By now, the local police were likely on their way to take her into custody. First, for disorderly conduct and assault. Then, maybe, for her involvement in the hacking scandal. Either way, a scene like that was enough cause for Liam to terminate her from ANS for good.
“I’m sorry about the mess,” Hayden said, wiping some cake from his face. “I never expected her to come talk to me. She was so confident that she had me beaten. I couldn’t pass up the chance to put a crack in her facade, but I didn’t realize she’d go nuclear. It ruined your reception. Just look at the cake.”
Liam shrugged. Somehow knowing it wasn’t his real wedding made it easier to stomach. “Nailing Angelica is important. You have to take every opportunity you can get.”
He walked with Hayden out of the ballroom to where a few police officers were waiting outside. They answered their questions and gave out their contact information. Hayden opted to go with them to the station, but Liam knew he needed to get back inside and salvage what was left of his wedding reception.
When Liam returned, people seemed to be milling around, at a loss for what to do with themselves. “Sorry about that, folks,” he said, raising his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Please stick around and enjoy the reception. I’m sad to say there won’t be any cake, though.” A few people chuckled and most awkwardly returned to nibbling and drinking as they had before the fight broke out.
Liam noticed the drinks he’d fetched from the bar still untouched on the table. He’d gotten wrapped up in the scene and had forgotten to take Francesca her champagne. He picked them back up and turned, looking for her. After all that, they’d need another round pretty quickly.
But she was nowhere to be found.
Frowning, he searched the ballroom, finally turning to a frazzled Ariella for help. “Have you seen the bride?” he asked.
“Not since I put her in a cab.”
“A cab?” Liam frowned. “You mean she’s left her own reception? Without me?”
Ariella bit her lip and nodded. “About ten minutes ago. Right about the time Angelica started bathing in wedding cake. She needed to get out of here.”
Liam glanced around the mess of a ballroom. Scarlet was frantically informing staff of their cleanup duties. The guests were still standing around, but despite his assurances, they seemed unsure of whether they should stay. It was a wedding disaster.
He didn’t blame Francesca one bit for leaving.
*
Francesca couldn’t get out of her wedding dress fast enough. The corset-tight bodice made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. It was all just too much.
Initially, she’d been relieved when Hayden and Angelica started making a scene. For the first time that day, every eye in the room wasn’t on her. It was a blessed break. It was the first moment since she started down the aisle that she thought she might be able to let the facade of bridal bliss drop and regather herself.
And then the cake started flying.
Her nonna had never specifically mentioned that having her wedding cake flung across the room was bad luck, but Francesca was ready to make her own deduction about that. Their reception was a disaster. Their sham of a marriage would no doubt be a mess, too. It was just one more thing, one more blazing neon sign trying to point her in the right direction. She’d ignored all the other portents of bad luck. The fates had ensured this last one would be undeniable.
When she’d asked Ariella to get her a cab, her friend probably thought she was upset about having her reception ruined. The truth was that she just couldn’t pretend anymore. If she’d had to be in that ballroom one more minute, she would have blown everything for Liam and ANS.
Now that she was back at Liam’s place, in a pair of jeans and a light sweater, she felt better and worse all at once. Boxes of her things still sat around the ground floor of his town house ready to be incorporated into her new life with him. But they might as well go back onto the moving truck.
She poured herself a glass of wine to calm her nerves and went upstairs to the master bedroom to repack. The only things of hers that had been put away were her clothes and personal effects for the bed and bath. Those could easily be rounded back up, and she intended to do it right now.
If she hurried, she would be sleeping in her own bed tonight. Not quite the wedding night everyone was expecting her to have.
She had one suitcase filled and zipped closed when she heard the front door open.
“Francesca?” Liam called.
“I’m upstairs,” she answered and pulled another bag onto the bed. She was stuffing it with lingerie and pajamas when he came through the doorway of his bedroom.
Francesca tried not to think about how handsome he looked in his rumpled tuxedo. His tie was undone, his collar unbuttoned. She liked him tousled. Despite everything, she felt her body react to his presence. Her pulse started racing, and her skin tightened in anticipation of his touch. But thinking about how much she wanted Liam wouldn’t help. It would make her want to stay. And she needed to go.
“What are you doing?” he asked. His voice wasn’t raised. It was quiet and tired. They’d both had a long day and didn’t need any more drama. But this had to happen tonight.
“I’m packing my things and moving back into my place.” Francesca shoved another few items into her bag and looked up. “Don’t worry, I’ll lie low until Aunt Beatrice leaves town on Monday, but then I’m calling the moving company to come get my stuff.”
Liam took a few steps toward her. She could feel the magnetic pull of him grow stronger as he came closer. She wanted to bury her face in his lapel and forget about everything that was going wrong. But she couldn’t.
“Why?”
Francesca put the last of her clothes into the bag and zipped it closed. She looked at the bag as she spoke to ensure she could get all the words out. “I’m sorry, Liam. I thought I could do this. But I just can’t.”
There was a pause before he answered, his voice a touch strained. “Do you want an annulment?”
She looked up at him and shook her head. “No. I’ll remain legally married to you for the sake of the network. Hopefully that will be enough because I can’t play house with you. It’s too hard on…” Her voice started to falter as tears rushed to her eyes. She immediately turned from him before she gave away how she really felt. “It’s too hard on my heart, Liam.”
He took another step forward, but stopped short of reaching out to her. “What do you mean?”
Francesca took a deep breath. “I want more.”
“More than the five million?”
At that, Francesca jerked her head up to meet his gaze. “You just don’t get it, do you? I don’t want your money. I never did. I have plenty of my own. I want the things that you can’t give me. I want love. A real family. A marriage like my parents have. I want a man who cares for me more than anyone or anything.”
She shook her head and hoisted the strap of the bag over her shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. You were right when you said I was a true believer. I am. But I’ve been lying to myself. First, I told myself that I could be with you and it would be fine. That I could spend the next year pretending. But I can’t because I was stupid enough to fall for you. Then I kept hoping that maybe, just maybe, you would fall for me and this could become more than just a business arrangement. Silly, right?”
Liam reached out to her, but Francesca sidestepped him. “Don’t,” she said. “Just don’t. I know you don’t have feelings for me. Anything you say right now will make it worse.”
She extended the handle of her suitcase and rolled it to the bedroom door.
“Francesca, wait.”
She stopped and turned to him. This was the moment everything hinged on. If she was wrong and he did care for her, this was the time for him to say it. She looked into his dark blue eyes, hoping to see there the love she wanted so desperately. Etched into his pained expression was desperation and confusion. He didn’t want her to go, but he didn’t know how to ask her to stay.
“Liam, would you have ever considered marrying me if your aunt hadn’t forced us into this situation? I mean, would you even have asked me on a date after what happened between us in the elevator? Honestly.”
Liam frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets. “No, I probably wouldn’t have.”
At least they were both telling the truth now. Nodding, she turned away and hauled her luggage down the stairs. It was time for her to go home and pick up the pieces of her life.