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14. Professional Standards
publish date:
2026-07-23 22:29:43
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My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 31. You Weren't There
INDIGOI had started feeling sick around midnight.It began with a dull ache in my stomach that I had ignored because I had more important things to worry about. Like the anniversary event. Like the seating arrangements. Like whether the lighting at the new venue would work.Then I threw up.That had been my first indication that the universe had officially decided I wasn’t attending the event.By three in the morning, I had stopped pretending I would somehow wake up feeling better.I couldn’t keep anything down. My stomach hurt, my body ached, and every few hours I woke up drenched in sweat before immediately starting to shiver.I had taken painkillers whenever I could manage to swallow them, but they hadn’t done much beyond dulling the aches for a while, and spent most of the morning moving between sleep and consciousness.The worst part was knowing I was missing the anniversary.I’d spent days working on it. I had been excited to see everything come together after all the running a
My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 30. The One Missing
DARIOLeah looked beautiful.There was no other way to put it.The gold strapless gown fell perfectly around her, catching the light every time she moved. Her hair was swept away from her face, leaving her neck and shoulders bare, and the gold earrings she’d chosen shimmered whenever she turned her head.I adjusted the cuff of my black shirt beneath my suit jacket and glanced down at my shoes—black Christian Louboutin dress shoes, because apparently even my feet had to participate in the black-and-gold theme.Across the ballroom, Rico was speaking to one of the event coordinators. He looked annoyingly put together in a black suit, white shirt and tie, his blue hair styled into a wet look that somehow suited him. Caleb looked just as good beside him.My parents had actually decided to grace me with their presence tonight. That alone should have been enough to make the evening stressful. My mother had already tried twice to bring up the engagement party.Twice.The first time, I pretend
My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 29. After Hours
INDIGOA day before the anniversary, and I had officially forgotten what it felt like to have free time. Everyone at FanHub had been running helter-skelter for days. Marketing was working on last-minute publicity, the events team was coordinating vendors, security was finalizing guest access, and Rico seemed to exist in three different places at once. My own schedule had become a blur of meetings, phone calls, venue confirmations and seating arrangements.Dario and I hadn’t really spoken since the night we acquired the new venue. Not properly, anyway. We’d seen each other in meetings, exchanged opinions, disagreed over things that somehow mattered far more at the time than they probably should have, and then moved on to the next problem. Strangely, he’d started asking for my opinion first. In yesterday’s meeting, someone from marketing had dismissed one of my suggestions about the guest flow before I could even explain it. He had looked up from the papers in front of him.“Let her fi
My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 28. Twenty-Seven is Still Alive
DARIOBy the time I reached my car I still hadn’t figured out what Indigo had been trying to escape from. She was already in the passenger seat, strapped in, her tablet balanced on her lap as though she hadn’t just practically fled from Leah and Kelsey. I opened the driver’s door and got in. She didn’t look at me. Her fingers moved across the screen, scrolling through what appeared to be a list of event venues. I glanced at her, then at the tablet, then back at her. It wasn’t my business, but what exactly had she been excusing herself from? She’d said she needed to take a phone call. There had been no phone call. She’d said she remembered something about her phone. She’d been holding it the entire time. And then there was that little “ugh.” I still didn’t understand it.I started the car. “Are you okay?”She scoffed. It was so quick that I almost missed it. She seemed to realize she’d done it too, because she turned toward me, gave me a brief look, then returned her attention to th
My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 27. Oh, You're Fine Then
INDIGOBy the time we reached the event venue I had almost convinced myself that last night hadn’t been as strange as it felt. Almost. Dario had been perfectly normal on the drive over—at least as normal as a man who had spent the morning looking like he wanted to personally fight the entire event industry. He barely spoke. I didn’t either. It was probably for the best. I was still trying not to think about the fact that I’d spent half the night wondering if I had made him uncomfortable. Clearly I needed a hobby.We found Leah and Kelsey near the entrance going through what looked like a stack of floor plans. Leah spotted me first.“Indie!” She waved me over and I walked toward them. Kelsey turned at the sound of my name. I’d heard about her before, of course—Dario’s cousin, the event planner handling FanHub’s second anniversary—but meeting her in person was different. She was gorgeous, not in the intimidating, overly polished way some women managed to be. There was something effor
My Cousin's Fiancé, My Ruin 26. More Than a Dress Situation
INDIGOI went to bed with Dario Cross on my mind, which was a terrible place for my mind to be. He was my cousin’s fiancé, my boss, and the man I had spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours trying very hard not to think about. And yet there he was. I kept replaying dinner in my head—the way he had sat across from me on the floor, the way we had argued over baseball as though we’d been doing it for years, the way he had looked at me when I told him he was my favorite player. I had no idea why that moment had affected him so much. Maybe I’d crossed some invisible line without realizing it. Maybe I’d said too much. Maybe I’d made him uncomfortable. I rolled onto my side and groaned into my pillow. I should have been thinking about my job. Instead I was wondering if Dario was okay, which was ridiculous. So ridiculous that I finally forced myself to sleep.By morning I had convinced myself that everything was fine. Mostly. I stepped into the FanHub building with my bag over m
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