7

A knock on the door interrupted and Lily wondered what the hell had just happened.

Roman pulled away slowly and cleared his throat before proceeding to speak, "come in." He called with a look of doubt on his face.

It was another maid.

Lily doubted she would be able to keep up with so many people.

"Your sister is here, sir." She announced.

Roman shrugged. Emily was a celebrity. Not that the rest of them weren't famous, but she was in the entertainment industry and she was always away working. 

"The whole family will be here for the wedding?" Lily wondered.

"Just the nuclear, like yours and um-"

"Kim's." She answered for him.

"Exactly." He stood to his feet and extended his arm towards her, "come on, let's go. I'll introduce you."

The maid took her leave and they went after her. Lily noticed how boring his room looked for the first time. He completely lacked design skills. If this was their final bedroom, and she could remodel, then she would.

*

Lily's heart sank at the sight of this woman. She was a goddess, curves in the right places, tanned skin, expensive face, surgically enhanced maybe but who wouldn't if they could?

Emily was busy on the phone and there were a few camera crew taping her. She was busy on her phone and she looked up from it once to catch sight of their entrance.

"Emily, turn these stupid cameras off." Fred came in at the moment with a frown plastered on his face.

"Dad." She stood to her feet and rolled her eyes, signalling to her crew. 

"Roman." She smiled, walking to her brother and giving him a hug. "I heard the news and I have the best plan ever."

"What plan?" Roman did not sound pleased as he pulled away from the hug.

"I already bought us tickets, me, you, Adrian and your future wives, speaking of which, where are they?" Emily furrowed her eyebrows.

"Tickets to what? And this is Lily." He nudged her shoulder a little.

Lily watched as Emily's face took the form of astonishment, she must have been expecting someone that looked way better.

"Why did I think she was a new maid?" She chuckled and stopped at Roman's glare. "Anyways, it's a camping ticket... I paid for a personal camp space. It comes with decorated and sturdy tents, infinity pools, and luminescent bulbs, you will love it, it's just my welcome present to your wives, and you will not be refusing." She gave him a warning glare.

"Oh my goodness..." her gaze shifted to Kim who had just walked in wearing an oversized T-shirt and joggers. 

Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes and went to fill the forms she had been asked to. This was going to be one hell of a journey.

*

The wedding was finally here. Lily's sisters had come a day before to help her prepare and so sleeping in her room that Saturday was the most peaceful thing for her because they had slept in her room, too.

They would not stop talking about how blessed she was and the whole time Mama Johnson had stayed back to babysit Amy's children. Her husband was out of town for business.

They didn't meet Roman nor his family because they were occupied the entire day but some tailors had come by to fit their dresses on them.

"How do you feel?" Gaby squealed behind her sister as the makeup artist did her art. 

"Like I'm going to fucking explode from anxiety." Lily swallowed, going through Weber. It was everywhere.

'Dalmain brothers getting married on the same day, who will the brides be?' Everyone wanted to know. Lily thought it had supposed to be a private thing so how did they all know about the wedding?

"You will be fine, I promise." Gaby assured her, "like they said, the crowd won't be wild, nuclear family and that's it. Besides, I'm hosting a celebration party afterwards with some of our old friends, maybe spending time with a few other familiar faces will help you feel better?" She wondered. 

"Party? When she has to prepare for her wedding night?" Amy raised one eyebrow.

"Oh my God!" Lily gasped and turned in her seat, causing the makeup artist to smear her temple with eyeliner. "I'm sorry." She apologised and looked back at her sisters, "I totally forgot about that. Gosh, I have to have sex with him? I forgot marriages came with sex!"

"What?"Gaby chuckled in mockery. "You've had sex before, what's the big deal?"

"Once. And it was horrible, that man literally tried to kill me. He was too heavy, and smelled like fish, didn't wait till I came, it was over when he came, and let me tell you it wasn't even seven minutes in." She rolled her eyes at the memory.

"You are marrying a billionaire, babe, this is different, he's a hottie, I'm sure he is good at it." Amy said in a calm tone.

"Let's not talk about my sexual life." She warned them.

"Wow." Their jaws dropped.

"What? Are you that interested in it that you-" Lily began.

"You look like a fucking goddess. I've not seen you in this much makeup, or any makeup at all in forever, what the heck?" Gaby squealed in excitement and hurriedly took shots of her sister's face.

"Oh..." Lily blinked at her reflection. She couldn't recognise the woman sitting in front of her. "I look so good, what?"

The part of the wedding that confused Lily was, she had no idea where the event center would be and so it was a surprise when the driver of the limousine dropped them off in the garden of the mansion. It was a five minutes drive away from the house itself.

"Are you kidding?" Gaby looked disappointed.  "Where is the road trio? The beaches? I already prepared my camera for this!" She sounded even disappointed by the event. Lily on the other hand could not be more glad. She didn't have to worry about a crowd taping her or anything of the sort. She smiled as she walked out of the car.

The garden had a small gate you could easily push and you could already hear the sound of music just from the entrance.

"This sounds amazing." Lily squealed. 

"Mama Johnson just texted me, she's waiting in there with the girls." Amy smiled at her phone.

"Double the fun." Gaby chuckled.

There were multiple flowers decorating the path, roses, hibiscus, sunflowers. There was a fountain in the center and it looked like paradise.

Lily had no idea what steps to follow. She had no father to walk her down the aisle, nor any wedding routine to take.

"Don't panic." Anna called from ahead, walking towards them. She was dressed in clothes similar to the ones chosen for her sisters.

"I know you are worried but stay calm, the priest will announce your presence, come with me." She directed the girls to a section demarcated from the other side by a curtain of leaves.

"Fred agreed to walk you down the aisle since there's no father figure present." Anna hoped she didn't come off too insensitive. 

"That's… that's very sweet of him." Lily looked a little broken but she was especially nervous. She had worries that her anxiety would cause her to sweat and ruin her makeup or dress. 

This was really happening. Just the other day, she had been sitting in her classroom, and here she was, getting married to a complete stranger, not just anyone, a billionaire for that matter. This had to be a dream.

"Lily!"

"Huh?" She snapped out of thoughts.

"I said, it's time." Anna repeated her words.

'Here comes the bride' was already playing from the other end and Fred appeared through the curtain.

He looked stunned to see her and she knew he was rightly so. She looked like she had been born rich and for the first time, his lips twitched into a smile at her.

He took her hands and led her down the aisle, her sisters holding her flowers behind her.

Lily calmed down at the sight of the crowd. Emily's camera crew were the only strange faces present. Kim's father or whoever he was, seemed to be her only guest and they all sat in the front seats.

"Aunt Lily!" Her five year old nieces, Gina and Mia squealed from where they sat with her mother. Mama Johnson had caked too much makeup on and she was wearing a hat. Her jaw dropped when she saw her daughter's appearance. 

Roman was handsome, handsome-r even. 

He was wearing a black suede suit and his hair had been cut shorter. He was dressed in all black except for his white tie.

Adrian and Kim stood on the other side of the priest and when Lily joined them, the priest, a short, bald man announced, "let the ceremonies begin."

Things seemed to flow fine until a weird looking man burst in. Murmurs filled the small garden arena and everyone looked confused. Everyone except for Kim.

Her eyes widened at the sight of James. How and why was he here?