Page 75 of Snow

“Excuse me,” she whispered as she stood up. “I need to make a call.”

She was out the door before anyone could respond.

The silence stretched. Then Bear’s voice came through the screen. “What the hell was that about?”

Snow stared at the door that Nova disappeared through, his jaw tight. Every instinct screamed at him to follow her. “I don’t know. But as soon as we are finished here, I intend to find out.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Nova barely registered Snow saying something as her attention had locked onto the screen of her phone the second Sophia’s text came through.

Sophia: Call me ASAP

Below the message was a screenshot. The headline read: It’s Official: Governor Hopeful Rick Montgomery to Wed Nova Hart.

For one second, Nova stared at it, her mind refusing to process what she was seeing. Her stomach dropped.

“What the fuck?”

She didn’t realize she had said the words aloud until Snow shifted beside her. “What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t look at him. Her thumb enlarged the screenshot as though she might have read it wrong, but the article beneath the headline only made everything worse.

The announcement had apparently been released jointly by the Hart and Montgomery families earlier that afternoon, confirming the engagement of Richard Montgomery III and Nova Hart, daughter of prominent Salt Lake City attorney Leonard Hart. There was even a quote attributed to both families about how thrilled they were to celebrate the joining of two respected families with a long history of friendship and shared values.

Nova nearly laughed, but she was too pissed.

There was never an engagement to begin with, and even if there had been, there certainly hadn’t been some miraculous reconciliation from his infidelity that justified announcing to the entire damn world that she had agreed to marry him.

Her father knew that, her mother knew it too, and Merrick and CeCe Montgomery as well, which meant this wasn’t a misunderstanding at all but a deliberate and calculated move designed to trap her.

Nova quickly stood up, ignoring Snow’s question.

“Excuse me. I need to make a call.”

She didn’t wait for an answer. She vaguely heard Snow say her name again as she pushed through the door and headed down the corridor, but stopping would have meant explaining, and explaining would have meant acknowledging the humiliation tearing through her chest.

By the time she reached the stairs leading toward the upper deck, anger had overtaken everything else, driving each step harder than the last. The warm offshore air hit her the second she emerged outside, carrying the heavy scent of saltwater.

Her thumb was already pressing Sophia’s number. Her sister answered before the first full ring.

“Oh, thank God.”

“What the hell is this?”

There was a beat of silence. “Nova—”

“No. Don’t Nova me.” She paced toward the railing, gripping the phone so tightly her fingers hurt. “An engagement announcement?”

“I need you to calm down and let me explain.”

“Calm down? Sophia, they announced to the fucking world that I was getting married.”

Sophia’s voice softened. “I know, and I’m so sorry. Rob overheard Mom and Dad talking last night, and we were going to call you today.”

Nova closed her eyes. “What did he hear?”

Sophia sighed and started to explain. Nova’s grip on the railing tightened.