The Right Bride

Chapter Forty-Seven


CAMERON SAT AT their table, staring at the envelope from Marti afraid to open it.

“Just open it, Cameron. It’s not going to bite you,” Jenna teased, though it didn’t hold a lot of amusement.

“What’s in the envelope? Who gave it to you?” Shelly asked, confused as ever by everyone’s odd behavior.

Emma went back to giving him the silent treatment, watching Shelly like a hawk from Sam’s lap.

“It’s from Marti.” Cameron held the envelope, stared at his name scrawled in Marti’s flowing script, unable to make himself open it. He didn’t want it to be goodbye, anything but that. He’d been hard on her in the hospital. He hadn’t slept much since. All he thought about was their baby. He didn’t even know if Marti had been upset by the loss. She looked okay tonight. She was in public though, so he couldn’t tell if she was in pain or grieving for their child. Worse, he didn’t know if she wasn’t grieving their child.

That wasn’t the worst. He hadn’t even talked to her about it. He’d yelled at her. She loved him. She must have been devastated to lose their baby, and he hadn’t been there for her, hadn’t sought his own comfort in her arms over their shared loss.

He felt like his brain was in some kind of whirlwind with his thoughts spinning around. He didn’t know what was right or wrong.

Everyone kept telling him to see Marti for who she was. She would be devastated if she lost the baby. He knew that for sure. He needed to get to her and talk to her. If she was feeling as bad as he was, she needed him as much as he needed her.

He knows her. She loves him and Emma. She keeps her promises, never lies. He put her through hell by choosing to be with Shelly because of the baby, and not because he loved Shelly over Marti.

He wanted the baby. He didn’t want Shelly. He wanted Marti.

“Who cares what she has to say. She tried to hurt me. Tomorrow, when we’re married, she won’t be able to come between us ever again. She’ll realize you belong to me.”

Cameron winced. The only people he belonged to, heart and soul, were Emma and Marti. The only thing he wanted from Shelly was his baby, if there was a baby. He wasn’t so sure anymore, he hadn’t been for a while, but hated to admit to such a colossal mistake. Pride be damned, he needed some straight answers.

He looked around the table at his friends, who he considered his family. Emma called them aunt and uncle. They told it like it is. They’d kicked him out of Marti’s hospital room and Sam and Jack had punched him. They considered him their brother, and yet they’d taken Marti’s side after the whole stairs incident. Why would they side with her over him?

“Okay. Enough of all this crap. Tell me what you know, and I keep missing.”

“You’re an idiot,” Jenna said.

“You’re stupid,” Jack said.

“You’re an a*shole,” Sam said while he covered Emma’s ears.

Elizabeth offered up something less irritating. “You’re engaged to the wrong person.”

That was the only thing that made sense to him. Yeah, he was being an idiot and stupid for not sorting this mess out sooner. He could even admit he’d been an a*shole to them and to Marti. He’d finally had enough. He wanted his life back in order. He wanted his daughter to smile again. He wanted to stop living with this all-encompassing grief over losing George and his baby in a matter of weeks. He couldn’t think straight anymore.

“Tell me the truth.”

“We just did,” Sam said and smiled. “You want the truth about Marti? We’ll tell you, even though you already know. Shelly’s confused you over the last two months by feeding you lies. You believed the lies and refused to accept the truth. The truth is simple. Marti loves you. She isn’t a liar.

“It’s also interesting to note Shelly claims Marti fell forward down the stairs. She doesn’t have a single mark on the front of her, but her back looks like a set of stairs hit her.”

“Those are the marks on her back. You pulled down her wrap when her back was to me, so I’d see the bruises across her shoulders.” They were the perfect image of where she must have hit the stair ledge when she’d fallen.

“I made sure you saw her back. You were so busy telling her what you thought you knew in the hospital, you never even asked her what happened. You weren’t even concerned about her well-being. You left her in the hospital hurting and thinking you don’t love her, when she hasn’t done anything wrong. You left her on the goddamn stairs,” Sam snapped. “Open the damn envelope. If you don’t sort this out now, I’ll pound it into you with my fists.”

“This is outrageous,” Shelly complained. “I’m carrying Cameron’s baby. We’re getting married tomorrow. She tried to kill me to stop me from marrying you.”

Sam glared, his eyes cold as steel. “Wrong on all counts.”

Cameron studied Sam and considered everything he’d said. He wouldn’t do this just to hurt him. He meant what he said. They all felt the way Sam did. How could he have been so wrong about everything?

He opened the envelope and pulled out the note.

Cameron,

You know my last name. You know what I do for a living. You know I love you and Emma. I never lied to you. I never tried to hurt Shelly. I was protecting Emma.

I didn’t lose our baby.

Now, you know everything.

You told me the morning we first made love, you’d spent the night holding the world in your arms. I took a piece of that world with me, and I’ll forever be grateful. If I couldn’t have you, at least, I have our child. The proof you need is in the envelope.

I’ll always love you.

Marti, Martina, Tina



Whoever it is you think I am, because you don’t seem to know me.

He pulled out the pregnancy test from inside the envelope. She’d written today’s date on it. The test was positive.

The relief he felt holding the positive test in his hands might have felled him if he’d been standing up. Their baby was still alive, tucked in his mother’s belly safe and sound. He held the test in his hands and closed his eyes and savored the moment of pure joy and overwhelming relief.

“She didn’t lose the baby,” Cameron said it out loud. He needed to hear it to believe it. His wish come true.

“No,” Sam confirmed. “We don’t know what you overheard, but she didn’t lose the baby. It was touch and go the first day, but the doctor gave her and the baby the all clear. She was at a complete loss when you came into the room yelling at her.”

Sam narrowed his gaze on Shelly. “You look disappointed. Funny, you don’t look surprised to hear Mari is pregnant with Cameron’s baby.”

Shelly was smart enough to remain silent. She didn’t want to give anything away. She was holding on to Cameron by a thread. She just needed to get to tomorrow and the ceremony.

Emma looked up at her uncle. “Marti is having a baby too?”

“Not too, sweetheart. She’s the only one. At least, the only one willing to prove it. Again. And again. And again.” Sam held Emma tightly to his chest.

“I’m not going to sit here and take this. Cameron, you can’t let them talk to me this way. I’m going to be your wife.”

Cameron didn’t answer her. He kept staring at the test in his hand and reading the note from Marti.

He knew her. He knew he knew her. She was right; he was the stupidest smart person. He had all the answers in business and with other people, but he’d screwed it all up with Marti. He swore he’d fix it all.

“Cameron, aren’t you going to set your friends straight?”

“I think they already know the score and I’ve come to the game late.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

He didn’t answer her. “How long do I have?” he asked the table at large.

“She’s not stupid. You have time. A lifetime if you’re smart.”

Sam and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

He held onto the test and the note, tucking them into his coat pocket next to his heart for safe keeping. The auction began and the books were up first. He watched them both go to families with children and for over ten thousand apiece. Several other items sold well. Cameron was impressed with how much money they were raising for the foundation.

A painting came up for auction and the sound of clapping drew Cameron’s attention. He looked up at the painting and saw that it was of Marti’s ship on a calm sea with the moon high above and the stars shining bright. Marti stood on deck facing the moon with her dark hair and white gown blowing in a soft wind. He couldn’t see her face, but there was no mistaking the woman he loved.

“Daddy, I want the painting,” Emma said, excited.

“I want the painting too,” he replied and raised his hand at the next bid.

The bidding went back and forth and around the table. Jack, Jenna, Elizabeth, and Sam were all making sure he paid big for the painting and the things he’d done to Marti. Petty revenge, but he deserved it. They finally relented and he got the painting for an astronomical three hundred thousand dollars. He’d have paid any price to get it regardless of the fact the money was going to the foundation.

Shelly sat beside him fuming over everyone clamoring to get the painting. As the night went on and Cameron continued to ignore her, she got even angrier. He didn’t care. Not anymore. Trying to do the right thing blinded him to the truth. He’d never let that happen again. He had a lot of making up to do, but he held fast to the promise in Marti’s note. I’ll always love you. All he needed to know to get her back. As long as they shared this kind of love, they could overcome anything, even his temporary insanity.