Page 125 of Camera Stays On

Don’t kill me.

“It won’t be genuine.” He frowned.

I shook my head. “No, it will! I think you’re right. I just didn’t know what I wanted. I was confused and hurt and needed time to see that it was you all along, Sawyer. You and me, forever.” The words he wanted to hear rolled off my tongue with ease. He wasn’t the boy I once thought I loved. That man was long gone, replaced by something evil.

“No, not our marriage. That will be perfect.” He cupped my cheek and ran his thumb under my eye tenderly. “I was referring to the movie. People will think we staged it, even after the rest of the movie was real. It either all has to be real or none of it.”

“No one will be able to tell that we planned this.” I brought my hands to his face, forcing his attention down to me. “Baby, these movies are all fake. This is all genre standard. And even if it wasn’t, this isn’t some Hollywood blockbuster. We can break rules. I don’t care about this movie, as long as I have you.”

Swallowing, I leaned up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his. The guilt that washed over me was so strong I wanted to vomit. Where was Asher?

My kiss seemed to solve everything. He wrapped his arms around me and deepened it. I forced my head to the side with a giggle. “Sawyer, not until we’re married. If we’re going to keep acting for the cameras, let me keep my innocence.”

My joke made him laugh, and he let me go. “That’s fair. Since I’ll be taking it in front of the camera soon, you can have your innocence for now.” He turned to the dirt wall and lifted himself out, then reached for me and yanked me up. “Ready?” he asked, taking my hand to lead me back to the clearing where we’d say our vows.

My stomach twisted in knots as I stared ahead, pleading for someone to come save me.

“Purdy?”

“Yes.” I blinked and returned to the forest. “Let’s...get married.”

Chapter 58

Andi

“I, PURDY,” SAWYER directed.

“Shouldn’t I say my real name?” I said as we held hands and stood in the center of the woods, where all the cameras were watching us.

“Right—sorry. I, Andi.”

“I, Andi.”

“Take Sawyer Delambre,” he continued.

“Wait—if you said your last name, shouldn’t I say mine?” I was stalling as best as I could, trying to figure out a plan. I needed to do something. It’d gone on too far. So many people were dead because of him, and I was about to be next.

He frowned, and I quickly added. “I just want it to be perfect. Even if the whole movie never gets seen, I might want our kids to see this. I want them to know just how magical it all was.”

“Magical?” He gave me a half smile, and for a brief moment, I was reminded of the charming kid he was before.

“Yes. It’s raining, for one. That’s good luck. Plus, you’re right. The public wedding was a disaster, the small one was forced. This intimate ceremony? I couldn’t ask for a better way to do this.”

It wasn’t a lie. I hoped no one ever saw this. It was cruel to lie to him, to get his hopes up that I still loved him, but it was purely out of need to survive.

“You really want kids?” he asked.

I beamed. My distractions were working.

“Maybe? Would that be so bad?”

“I think you’d be beautiful as a mother, all barefoot and pregnant, wandering around the house, doing laundry and making dinners. I’ll come home from my workday, and three little ones will come running, with you waddling behind holding your bulging belly with a fourth.”

The very idea made me want to gag, but I forced a smile.

“What a picture you paint, Sawyer Delambre.”

“Only for you, Purdy Doll—Andi.” He tried to kiss me, but I pulled back, pointing to the cameras.