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All Chapters of Third Wedding, Right Groom : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

45 Chapters

Chapter one: THE THIRD TIME

THIRD WEDDING, RIGHT GROOMPART ONE: THE ALTARCHAPTER 1: THE THIRD TIME"Miles Morretti, do you take Lila Clement to be your lawfully wedded wife?"Miles opened his mouth to answer.The chapel doors banged open behind us.Two hundred heads turned at once. I didn't have to. I knew the sound of that door. I'd heard it twice before, at two other weddings, in two other white dresses.The first time, a wedding coordinator had knocked on the bridal suite fifteen minutes before the ceremony. Valeria had fallen. There was blood. She was alone at the hospital. It had turned out to be a paper cut.The second time, I'd made it halfway down the aisle on my father's arm before a waiter whispered in Miles's ear. Valeria was on a hotel balcony, threatening to jump. Miles had turned to two hundred guests, said the wedding is canceled, and run.This was the third time. I'd known it was coming from the moment the hinges hit the wall."Mr. Morretti!" His assistant, Paul, came down the aisle at a half-ru

Chapter Two:THE CALL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

CHAPTER 2: TEN MINUTESThe phone rang once.Around me, the chapel was coming apart. Guests were standing, gathering purses, texting under the pews. Somebody's child asked loudly whether there would still be cake.It rang a second time."Lila?" Jessica whispered. "Who are you calling?"On the third ring, he picked up."Lila?" Alexander's voice was low and careful. Behind it I could hear traffic and the hollow sound of a big office. "Shouldn't you be getting married right about now?"I closed my eyes. Just hearing him loosened something in my chest."He left," I said.Silence."Paul came in during the vows. Valeria's going to the airport. Miles left."I heard him breathe out slowly. When he spoke again, his voice had gone very quiet, very controlled. "Are you all right?""No." I opened my eyes. Two hundred people. My mother. The reverend. The flowers I'd chosen petal by petal. "But I know what I want.""Tell me.""Alexander." My voice came out steady, much steadier than I felt. "I'm hold

Chapter Three: THE BEST OR WRONG CHOICE

The whole chapel went silent.Alexander Calvert stood in the doorway with the afternoon light behind him. He had on a charcoal suit and a white shirt, and his dark hair was slightly mussed, the way it got when he ran his hand through it, which meant he'd done it at least twice on the drive over. He was breathing a little hard.He looked past the guests and the flowers and the champagne glasses, straight down the aisle to me.Then he started walking.He walked the way he did everything, steady and certain, without wasted motion. People turned in their seats to watch him go by. Somebody in the back row actually started to clap and was hushed."Ten minutes," Jessica breathed. "On the dot."He climbed the two steps and stopped in front of me. Up close, I could see the pulse beating hard in his throat. He took both my hands. His were warm, a little unsteady, and holding on tight."Hi," he said."Hi.""You called.""I called."His gray eyes searched my face. When he spoke again, he dropped h

Chapter Four: HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Three years earlier"You look bored."I turned. A man was standing at my elbow holding two glasses of champagne, and I hadn't seen him cross the ballroom."I am bored," I said. The executive who'd been explaining interest-rate futures to me for fifteen minutes had finally wandered off toward the shrimp tower. "Is it that obvious?""Only to someone else who's bored." He held out one of the glasses. "Truce?"I took it.He was handsome in a way that seemed almost unfair: broad shoulders, a custom tuxedo, dark hair styled to look effortless, and warm brown eyes with gold flecked through them. I'd noticed him earlier, across the room, standing in a circle of people who all leaned in when he talked and laughed half a beat after he did.I'd told myself he was exactly the kind of man I wasn't interested in. Too smooth. Too aware of his own charm."Miles Morretti," he said."Lila Clement."His eyebrows went up. "Richard Clement's daughter?""Lila Clement," I repeated, "MBA, as of three weeks ag

Chapter Five: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

"Aureole," Miles said, grinning, holding up his phone with the confirmation on the screen. "Seven o'clock. Your birthday.""Miles. That place has a four-month waitlist.""I pulled some strings." He kissed my forehead. "Nothing but the best for my girl."We'd been together eight months. It was my twenty-fourth birthday, and I'd bought a new dress for it: deep blue silk, more than I wanted to admit spending, the kind of dress that made me stand up straighter.Valeria was home from Cambridge for the summer. I still hadn't met her."She's not ready," Miles had said, every time I suggested lunch, a coffee, anything. "She gets overwhelmed with new people. Give her time."So I gave her time.By six-thirty on my birthday, I was sitting on my couch in the blue silk dress, hair curled, makeup perfect, watching the clock. By six-forty-five, I was checking my phone. At six-forty-seven, it buzzed.So sorry. Valeria had a panic attack. At the hospital with her. Will make it up to you, I promise.I r

Chapter Six: A NEW CHAPTER

"At Morretti?""At Morretti." His eyes were bright. "Lila, you're wasted at your father's firm. They've got you analyzing other people's deals. You should be making them. I need someone who can walk into a room and make a client feel understood. That's you. That's exactly you.""Miles, mixing work and a relationship—""Gets complicated for other people. Not us." He squeezed my hands. "Think about it. Building something together. Side by side."It sounded wonderful. It also sounded like something I should talk over with someone who wasn't holding my hands across a candlelit table."Working for the man you're dating," my father said, "means he signs your paycheck."We were in his office. He had his reading glasses pushed up on his forehead and a contract open in front of him that he hadn't looked at since I walked in."He'd sign a paycheck I earned.""I'm sure he would." He took the glasses off and folded them. "I'm only saying, sweetheart, that when the person who loves you is also the

Chapter Seven: THE FIRST WARNING SIGNS

"A stapler," Jessica said."That's what she said.""At nine p.m. In your chair. With the Hartwell folder open.""The screen went dark before I could see what she was copying. Maybe it was nothing." I pressed my palms against my eyes. We were in the stairwell, the only place on our floor without glass walls. "Maybe she really was looking for a stapler and bumped the mouse.""Did you tell Miles?""I told him. He laughed. He said she's been begging to learn how I build a pitch, and she was probably trying to study it without bothering me, and I should be flattered."Jessica looked at me for a long moment. "Change your password."I changed my password.I met James Hartwell at a development conference in Boston that spring. He was old money and old manners, a man who could trace his family to the Mayflower and had built the Hartwell Group into one of the largest waterfront developers on the East Coast. He was also known for walking out of pitch meetings if the presenter used the word synerg

Chapter Eight: THE FORGOTTEN CELEBRATION

"Mr. Hartwell. It's Lila Clement."I'd called him from the fourth-floor stairwell with my back against the cinderblock wall and my eyes still swollen."Ms. Clement." James Hartwell's voice was clipped. "I take it you've seen the press release.""I have.""Then perhaps you can explain why a woman I have never met is being credited with my project."I closed my eyes. I could tell him the truth. I could tell him exactly what had happened in that conference room an hour ago, and he would pull the contract. Forty-seven people would lose the biggest deal in the company's history because I'd been humiliated."Valeria Morretti is a junior member of the team," I said carefully. "The release was an internal error. I'm managing your project, Mr. Hartwell. I'll be managing it until the last board goes into that boardwalk. Nothing about our agreement has changed."There was a long silence."You understand," he said slowly, "that you are protecting the people who just took your work.""I'm protectin

Chapter Nine: THE NEXT MORNING

"Miss Clement?" The wedding coordinator tapped on the bridal suite door. "Mr. Morretti needs to speak with you. He says it's urgent."It was 2:45. The ceremony started at three.The suite went quiet. Sarah stopped fluffing my train. Emma lowered the curling iron. Jessica set down her champagne very slowly."Urgent how?" I asked."He didn't say. He's in the library. He asked to see you privately.""I'm coming with you," Jessica said."No." I stood up. My heart was hammering. "It's probably nerves. Or the rings. I'll be right back."Jessica didn't believe me. Neither did I.Miles was pacing the venue's little library, running both hands through his hair. His bow tie was crooked. When he saw me in my dress, his face crumpled."Lila. Thank God. I didn't know how to—""What's wrong?""It's Val." He grabbed my hands. "She had an accident. She's at the hospital."All the air went out of me. "What kind of accident? Is she all right?""I don't know. She called me crying. She could barely talk.

Chapter Ten: THE PATTERN EMERGES

After my birthday, things seemed to go back to normal for a while—or at least, what I'd come to accept as normal in my relationship with Miles. He was attentive again, making an effort, taking me on dates to nice restaurants, and talking about our future together. We'd started wedding planning in earnest, looking at venues, tasting cakes, and making decisions that felt important and meaningful.He'd started talking about marriage more seriously, painting pictures of the life we'd build together. "Just think," he'd say, pulling me close on the couch, "in a year, you'll be Mrs. Morretti. We'll have that house in the suburbs we looked at. Maybe start talking about kids. Build this whole beautiful life together."It was intoxicating, being back in his good graces. Being the center of his attention again. I told myself the birthday incident had been a one-time thing, an unfortunate but understandable circumstance. Valeria had been in crisis. Miles had done what he had to do. It didn't mean

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