It did, to be honest. Asher had always been a playboy, but not what I'd call a player, exactly. He never seemed the kind of man to string me along until something better came his way.
Or maybe that was just me, being stupidly naive.
The door flew open yet again, this time slamming into a wall so hard I thought the glass would fall out of the pane. Lana and I rushed from the back room to see who it was this time.
To my surprise, it was Macy. She wore a long purple dress that looked out of place in this weather, and her dark hair was wet with snow.
“Macy? Never expected to see you in a place like this.”
She scowled. “It's not really my thing, no, but that isn't why I came. I'm here because there's no way in hell I'm letting Asher marry that whore Rosa.”
“Uh, okay. And how do you propose to stop that from happening?”
“There are a dozen different ways to cause a distraction, but that would only delay the wedding a little bit. My parents are hell-bent on him going through with it. It will take something more, much more, to put the brakes on completely.”
“Why would Asher go along with what they want?” Lana wondered.
“Dad's a dick, that's why. He'd set the marriage up with Rosa's family long ago. Never told Asher, because he knew he'd find a way to worm out of it.”
“He can still get out of it now.”
“Not exactly,” she muttered. “The only reason he's going through with it is you.”
Me?
“Dad swore he'd leave your store alone if he did. If he refused, he'd happily turn this place into a parking lot for the Galleria. Asher didn't want that. He knows this place means so much to you.”
He was marrying Rosa for me?
“It's rare for anything to crack me up.” She paused to wipe a tear from her eye. “But my brother obviously cares for you. I've never seen him truly care for another woman before.”
Sure, keeping Curiosities was the goal all along. To lose it would devastate me, and the family. But if I had to lose Asher to save myself...
Was that worth it?
“Hello,” squawked the parrot, and all three of us jumped.
“The bird,” I gestured. “And the donation to the orphanage. Why?”
“Maybe it's an apology for what he's doing. Or maybe it's a sign we need to go rescue him.”
Asher was such an idiot! If he really cared, he'd never marry Rosa. He'd run away with me, somewhere far from here, where we didn't have to worry about our family drama ever again.
“Rescue him,” murmured Lana. “Yes, that's a great idea! That's exactly what we need to do.”
“You're both insane.”
Lana ignored me and turned to Macy, hopping up and down the way she did when she got riled up enough. They tossed out a few ideas for crashing the wedding while I stood there feeling sick.
Was ruining the wedding really the smart thing to do? Heath was a juggernaut; crashing the party would infuriate him. No telling what he'd do then. To me, or to Asher.
If only everyone knew the truth about him and Ellen. If only there was some kind of proof.
“I thought maybe setting the church on fire would do the trick,” Macy said. “But if there's a hell, I don't really want to end up there.”
Lana frowned. “Hmm. It's gotta be something big, for sure. I dunno. I'm not really good at this subterfuge stuff.”
Maybe they had hope, but I felt defeated. No matter what stunt we pulled, it couldn't work. Heath controlled everything here, he pulled the strings. Whatever we tried would delay the inevitable and make him even more of an enemy.
I knew that, but even so, I had to try.
The door opened once again. I snapped out of my funk and forced a smile.
“Welcome to Hazel's – ”
“I know everything.”
Cole! He hovered in the entryway, looking the three of us over with narrowed eyes.
“At the country club, I heard it all. Aunt Ellen is Heath's sister. Part of this land is hers.”
My stomach sank. Lana gaped at him, speechless. She hadn't known. I never told her. But now the big secret wasn't so much a secret anymore.
“Grandma knows it, too,” he continued, pacing back and forth. “It's absolute bullshit. What's going on, Sarah? Am I the only one you guys kept out of the loop?”
“No. Even Ellen doesn't know who her real father is, and grandma wanted to keep it that way.”
He threw up his hands. “Why? She'd be rich if everyone knew the truth.”
It was hard explaining things like this to Cole. Harder still when he got this way.
Macy sighed in annoyance. “Stop worrying about things you don't understand and quit your yapping. We don't have all day here. The wedding starts at one.”
Cole seemed to notice her for the first time. His cheeks reddened as he stormed up to her.
“Heath is your father. Why don't you tell him to stop being a selfish ass and give my aunt what's supposed to be hers?”
She scoffed. “Yeah, I'll tell him. Sure that will go over real well.”
“And another thing.” He moved on to me. “The whole deal with Asher was a total scam. All some stunt to keep your store open. I knew it the entire time. You didn't love him one bit.”
“That isn't true.” Sadness welled in my chest until I could no longer hold it in. “It's not true.”
Here came the tears again. Cole stopped his tirade, and all three of them stared at me like I was some kind of zoo animal.
“Maybe it was a scam
