Mr Spencer (Mr. 2)

Lara shrugs. “They thought something was off and they were right.”

Beth rolls her eyes. “Did Edward tell you that while you were sucking his dick?”

I smirk.

“Will you drop it with the Edward crap?” Lara whines.

Beth is now openly ribbing Lara about Edward, and Lara is avoiding the topic by not answering a direct question. I really do think they either are fucking or have fucked in the past. Which one, I’m not sure. It’s something I don’t like to imagine.

“Will you stop making Spencer out to be the evil villain in this story, because he’s not?” Beth grumbles angrily. “It’s fucking Penelope and her loose vagina that’s caused all this heartache. Spencer wasn’t married. Spencer didn’t have a girlfriend. Who cares who he fucked before he met you?”

“When it was my brother’s wife, I do actually, Beth,” I hit back.

She rolls her eyes at me, choosing not to respond.

“Everybody will know. For the rest of my life, everyone will know that he fucked my brother’s wife. It’s been in every tabloid for a week.” My eyes fill with tears. “I can’t be with someone who’s done that, no matter how much I love them. I can’t get past it.”

“Then go talk to him and break up with him like a real adult.”

Guilt fills me.

“Why are you hiding from him?”

“Because if I see him, he’ll talk me down.”

“Because you know he’s fucking right!” Beth snaps.

“Oh, just shut up, Beth.” Lara sighs. “She can’t be with him after this. She’ll be the laughing stock of society.”

Beth scowls at us both and stands in an outrage. “Lara, I would expect you to bow down to society and suck their balls. But you...” she points at me, “are being fucking ridiculous. Spencer is a wonderful man, and I don’t care what he’s done before he met you because I see how

happy he makes you now. If he fucked her now it would be different. But he didn’t, it was years ago. Wake up and smell the damn coffee.”

I stare at her through tears.

She points at me. “You’re going to lose him, and in ten years’ time when Penelope is long divorced from William, and Spencer is happily married to someone else, you’re going to kick yourself for throwing away the best thing that ever happened to you.”

We both stare at her and fear runs through me. What she’s just said is a real possibility.

“Now, I’m going to bed, because you two and this society-shame bullshit is pissing me off.” Before she leaves, Beth turns to me. “I thought you wanted to marry for love, Lottie?”

“I do.”

“You’re not acting like you love him. You’re acting like a selfish little girl—”

“Fuck off, Beth. She is not, she’s being smart, for once,” Lara interrupts.

“Imagine how he’s feeling right now.”

Tears roll down my cheeks.

“You know what? I wish Spencer Jones had fallen in love with me because there is no way in fucking hell I would be sitting here in this fucking prison with you.”

I stare at her.

“Your father didn’t talk to you for eight weeks because he didn’t get his own way, Charlotte.” She throws her hands in the air. “What does that tell you about this fucked up situation? How can you not see it?”

“Stop it, you’re upsetting her,” Lara demands.