Page 49 of The Marriage Clause

"This is your version of efficient?"

"Yes," Everly says brightly.

Right. I should have guessed.

Everly loops her arm through mine and drags me farther into the room. "Come on. You have to at least pretend to care."

"No, I don't have to care at all. I have work to do."

She blinks.

I sigh. "Fine, let's get this over with."

"Not helpful."

The linen specialist steps up immediately and holds out three squares of fabric.

"Champagne, warm ivory, and soft sand."

I look at them.

They are all beige.

"They all look the same to me," I say.

The woman looks personally wounded.

Across the room, Aria coughs to cover what is very obviously a laugh.

I glance over my shoulder, and she has the nerve to look innocent.

This should be Aria being dragged around the room by the arm, not me. Everly would have a far more captive audience with her. Mostly because I'm half convinced my sister kidnapped Aria and is keeping her here against her will.

Better her than me.

The next hour tests my patience in ways I did not agree to.

The second I finally manage to extract myself from my sister's death grip—thanks only to someone distracting her with table cards—I head straight for the only place in the office that still feels like mine.

My desk.

I sit behind it like it's a shield, open my laptop, and try to work while people cycle toward me demanding preferences on flowers, cake, lighting, seating, and whether I have any emotional attachment to place cards.

I do not.

In fact, I don't have an emotional attachment to any of this beyond seeing it through so none of us loses our inheritance.

I make calls, respond back to emails, and check over quarter-end figures from finance. Anything to keep my attention where it belongs.

Wedding decisions continue to get made at the edges of my office with little to no input from me, and I'm now fully convinced Everly never needed my approval on any of this. She just wanted me here to suffer through it.

Then, a fork appears in front of my face.

I look up.

Aria is holding out a bite of cake.

Lemon.