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Although she had given up control of her own life, her independence, and she couldn’t help thinking that all Peter’s gifts were aimed at

sweetening her surrender to this marriage.

He wanted Jack.

But she wasn’t sure he still wanted her.

He hadn’t once tried to reignite the primal spark, not with a look, a kiss…no attempt whatsoever to establish any form of physical intimacy between them. It made Erin worry that, in his mind, she was still tainted by her lies of omission.

She felt very nervous about what would happen tonight, when the wedding was over, how it would be as his wife, not just the mother of his child.

“Time for us to get going, Erin,” Charlotte said.”Ready?” “Yes, I’m ready.”

Ready to seal the commitment she had made, for better or for worse. From the day of their son’s birth, Peter had been driving her towards this moment.

There was no turning back. Let it be done now, she thought on a wave of fateful resignation. Deal with what came after…after.

They went downstairs.

Her