by S. E. Rose
I blink and squint as I open my eyes.
“It’s D-Day,” Zach whispers against my hair.
I groan and snuggle deeper into the crook of his neck.
“Come on, get up, sleepy head,” he says. “I have to go soon to help with wedding stuff.”
“Let’s just stay here. We can move in. Let’s think about it. Food and utilities are included. Plus, we get housekeeping and amenities. And I did the math…just now…it’s basically the same as rent, so why go home?” I say.
I hear a rumble of laughter in his chest, and he turns so we’re facing each other. He smiles at me and runs his hand along my cheek.
“As much as I’d love that, we do have to face reality, Reagan,” he says and leans in to plant a kiss on the tip of my nose.
I sigh, partly contented with lying here and partly exasperated with having to get up soon.
“When do you leave?” I ask him as he begins to interlock our hands and rub his thumb over my knuckles.
“Day after tomorrow,” he says. “Harrison talked me into going on a sunset cruise tomorrow night.”
My eyes widen. “Really?” I squeak.
“He may have mentioned that Grant mentioned you were going,” he admits.
I grin. “I’m glad you’ll be there,” I say. “It’d be a bummer not to have one last day together.”
He frowns and then nods before getting up and walking to the shower.
He gets dressed, and I grab a quick shower as well. Once I have on a sundress, we go meet Harrison and Grant for breakfast.
“I’m going to see him after this,” Grant says, downing his third mimosa.
“Good luck,” Harrison replies. “I don’t envy your task.”
After two more mimosas, Grant works up the courage to leave us and go find Lee.
The three of us decide to wait together to hear from him.
“Let’s find a bar,” Harrison suggests.
“It’s nine a.m.,” Zach says.
“It’s an all-inclusive, Zach. I’m sure they are serving somewhere,” Harrison says with an eye roll.
We do find a bar area in a restaurant serving breakfast, but the bartender is more than happy to make us Bloody Mary’s as we wait for Grant to finish.
“This is awful,” Zach says as he sips his drink.
“It’s not bad,” Harrison says taking another sip.
“Not the drink, asswipe, the whole fucking situation,” Zach says shaking his head.
“Oh, that. Yeah, that sucks,” Harrison quips and downs half his drink.
Three drinks and my phone rings. Harrison’s and Zach’s heads pop up and look down.
“Moment of truth,” I say as I answer Grant’s call.
“Hello?” I say.
“Fucking shitshow,” he curses, and I can tell by the sound of his voice that he’s walking.
“Shit,” I mutter.
“He still wants to fucking marry her,” Grant says exasperatedly.
“Seriously?” I ask, putting the phone on speaker. “Harrison and Zach are here.”
“Yeah. I mean. I played the audio. I told him what we found out, and he said it’s probably a huge misunderstanding. He was pissed that I was springing this on him on his wedding day. He called me a, and I quote, ‘self-righteous, pompous, lowlife asshole who wouldn’t know love if it hit him in the dick,’” he says.
“Wow, Lee said that?” Harrison asks.
“Yeah, well, he was pretty angry with me. He told me if I didn’t want to come to the wedding, I could have just told him so,” Grant mutters.
“Shit,” Zach says, sitting back in his chair. “What are we doing to do now?”
I look at the time on my phone. “It’s nine thirty, that only leaves us eight more hours until the wedding,” I say.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Grant scoffs.
“Jesus, you don’t have to take it out on me,” I say to him.
“Sorry,” he mutters.
“Meet us at…where are we?” I ask Zach.
“Uh, La Vida,” he says looking at a menu.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Grant says and hangs up.
“Well, we have some serious brainstorming to do now,” Harrison quips as he downs his drink and puts up a finger to the bartender to indicate he needs a refill.
“OK, so what if we object when the guy asks ‘does anyone object to this marriage,’ you know like in the movies?” Harrison suggests.
Zach and I stare at him. “Uh, no,” Zach replies.
Harrison shrugs. “I mean, it’s a last-ditch effort, but it could work,” he says.
“No, just no,” Zach responds with a sigh.
“What if we make up some horrific lie about Lee and tell Maggie? Like, Lee slept with Felicia or something?” I suggest.
“Maybe, let’s back pocket that one,” Harrison says.
We all sit staring at our drinks when Grant sits down next to us.
“Any ideas?” he asks. We all shake our heads.
“Damn,” he replies and holds up a finger for the bartender to get him a drink.
“This is going to be a long day,” Zach says.
We all hunker down for the mother of all brainstorming sessions.
Chapter 18
After an unsuccessful powwow, we all hurry back to our rooms to get dressed for the wedding. I still haven’t heard back from my brother, who I messaged earlier. I check my phone for the millionth time just as Grant walks up to me. He does look very handsome dressed to the nines for the wedding.
“Ready?” he asks.
I nod, we join Harrison and Zach on the long walk down to the wedding site on the beach.
“Your idea of objecting at the wedding is getting more and more appealing,” Zach states as we stride down the walkway.
Grant sighs. “There has to be a way,” he says. “I can’t let Lee do this. Even when he’s being a total twat waffle.”
I squeeze Grant’s hand. “We’ll figure something out. I still have one Hail Mary left,” I tell them. They turn and look at me.
“I’m having Owen check into some stuff for me. It may pan out to be nothing, or it could help us stop the impending disaster,” I tell them.
“Care to share that one with the class?” Grant asks.
I shrug. “Let Owen do his magic first. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. We may all be objecting in a few more minutes,” I tell them. I get glares from all three but decide it’s better to not tell them what I’m thinking because it may turn out to be nothing.
As soon as we arrive at the wedding site, all three men are whisked away to prep for the ceremony. I stand to the side in a shady spot under a palm tree. I’m about to go find a bar with air-conditioning to wait in when my phone buzzes.
I look down at my phone. It’s my brother.
“Owen?” I ask as I answer, even though I know who it is.
“Thank God you answered. Are you near your computer?” he asks me. He sounds out of breath.
“Uh, no. I’m down near the wedding location. Grant had to be here early,” I explain.
“Shit,” he curses. “Can you get to your computer, now?”
I groan. It’s a fifteen-minute walk back across the resort to my room. “Yes, but why?” I ask.
“I found something, and you need to see it. In fact, Grant and Lee should see it too,” he says.
“What?” I ask.
“Just get them and get to your computer and then call me back,” he explains.
“What is this all about?” I ask.
“Let’s just say, Eunice buried some documents, but I found them and those two need to know what she’s been planning,” he says. “Things are not as they seem, and they certainly aren’t anything like we thought they might be.”
“OK,” I say slowly, not sure what to make of this.
I look over and see Harrison. He raises an eyebrow and I motion for him to come over to me.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“Well, my brother jus
t called, and he said we have to get Lee and Grant to come back to my room because he needs us to look at something on my computer,” I explain.
“Uh, that’s sort of a tall order considering that Lee is still pissed at Grant about this morning,” Harrison says.
I groan. “I know, but…just think of something, OK? Tell him you need him for a fraternity ritual in your room or some shit like that. He won’t know it’s Grant’s room until he’s already in there and then we can explain,” I tell him. He nods and walks off toward where Lee is standing talking to his dad. I wonder if my brother should have requested the presence of Lee’s and Grant’s parents. I shake my head and look over to where Grant and Zach are talking.
“Guys, we need to go back to the room. Owen said it’s important, and he needs you to see something on the computer,” I say, looking at Grant.
“Right now? The wedding is in an hour,” he scoffs.
“I know that, asswipe, but he was pretty certain you needed to see this right now and it’s Owen for God’s sake. Owen almost never calls me and certainly doesn’t request my presence,” I say to him.
Grant shrugs. “Fair enough,” he responds. “But seriously, Reag, we are barely going to have time to get back there and then back here,” he adds.
“Please, I think this is important,” I say to him.
“You think this is important,” he says.
I roll my eyes…that’s only five hundred and seventy-two times so far this trip. “Grant, I rarely ask you for anything, please, just this once, come with me,” I beg.
He huffs. “Fine, but it better be fucking important,” he says. Zach gives me a look, and I shrug because I honestly don’t know what is so important that Owen wants us all in front of my computer, but I have a feeling this is a game changer.
I take my heels off, so I can walk faster, but the asphalt path is so hot that I jump to the side quickly. Zach sees my predicament and once we are out of sight of the wedding guests, he lowers himself.
“Hop on,” he says. I look around.
“It’ll be faster this way,” he adds. I nod and jump on his back. Thankfully, my dress allows for this and isn’t a skintight contraption.
We make it back to the room in ten minutes, and I fire up my laptop.
I call Owen back.
“OK, what is this crisis-level situation that you have found that requires all of us to be here an hour before Lee’s wedding?” I ask him as I put him on speaker.
“Is Lee there?” Owen asks.
Just as Owen asks, there’s a knock at the door and Grant opens it. Harrison and Lee are standing there.
“What the fuck is this?!” Lee says angrily when he sees Grant, Zach, and me.
“Lee, you need to see this,” my brother’s voice says from my phone.
Lee looks at the phone. “Owen?” he asks.
“Yes, please, I need you and Grant to see something, and you need to see this now,” Owen says.
Lee mumbles something under his breath and walks into the room.
“Owen,” he growls, “this better be fucking important or I swear to God.”
“It is, I promise,” Owen says. “Reagan, I’m sending you an encrypted set of files.”
“Yep, got it,” I say to him. I run the decryption software on my computer and a bunch of scanned documents pop up on the screen.
“What is all of this?” I ask as I start reading.
“This is the reason Eunice is trying to get Grant to sign a new document. Lee, I’m guessing she asked you to do the same thing,” he states as if he already knows.
“She did. I was just going to sign it a minute ago. She wanted it done before the wedding,” Lee says slowly as he reads the documents from over my head. “I didn’t think it was a big deal. I mean we’re always signing financial documents, and she handles most of it.”
“Well, she wanted you to sign them prior to the wedding so that she could gain control upon your marriage to Maggie,” Owen explains.
“Say what?” Zach asks.
“Who all is there?” Owen asks.
“Hold on,” I say, switching to FaceTime.
“It’s Zach, Harrison, Lee, Grant, and me,” I say to him as I prop my phone up against a book on the table, so my brother can see us all as we crowd around my laptop.
“When you called me asking me to dig around, I did but didn’t find anything. Then, I sent my intern on an errand because Eunice was requesting something from Grandpa’s office. I thought that was odd. I mean Grandpa is pretty much retired, and anyhow, the file was on his desk. My intern thought it was the one for me and took it. Turns out it was a gold mine.”
“Wait, are you saying Grandpa has something to do with this?” I ask, shocked.
“No, no. Remember that guy, Harold Gunther, that Grandpa was looking to make a partner. He was handling Eunice’s stuff. Somehow the file ended up in Grandpa’s office by mistake. Thus, probably why Eunice was freaking out and wanted it back with Gunther. I had sent the intern to go get it and return it to Gunther, but then when she saw the name on it and realized I had been looking up files on that account, she brought it to me first. And booya, this is some damning shit, sis. First off, Lee and Grant’s grandfather left his estate to his four grandchildren, including Beth. Eunice must have freaked. Somehow, she got that document lost. The one prior to that gave her everything. She showed that in court. Then, she realized she needed to prove control for this big merger that is going on with—”
“Yeah, you can skip that part. We figured out that much already,” I tell him.
“OK, so then, I noticed that she was getting the grandkids to all sign these documents, which basically was handing their inheritance back over to her. If you all sign those documents, she will become the sole owner of the company and all the family’s money,” Owen goes on.
Lee’s and Grant’s jaws hit the ground.
“What?” they both say in unison.
“Do. Not. Sign. Anything,” my brother reiterates.
“Fuck,” Grant says.
“Yeah, fuck,” Lee copies.
“So, we just don’t sign the documents then,” Lee adds. “Owen, I gotta run. I have a wedding here in forty minutes.”
Owen laughs. “Uh, yeah, about that. Lee, you may want to hear what I have to say next before you decide to go through with that wedding,” he says.
Lee stops mid-step and turns around to face my brother on the screen.
“Lee, Maggie made a deal with Eunice. She will get ten percent of your family’s money upon marrying you,” Owen says. “Apparently, Maggie had her eyes set on someone else. In order to sweeten the deal of marrying you, Eunice had to cough up some money. If she had a great-grandchild, then Eunice would add in an additional two percent,” Owen explains.
Lee sinks down on to the edge of the bed. “What?” he whispers.
“She’s marrying you for the money,” Owen says. “Look at the emails in document three.”
I pull it up, and we all stare at it.
It’s a chain of emails between Maggie’s lawyers and Gunther hashing out a deal of sorts once Lee and Maggie are married.
We all turn and look at Lee. At first, I think the poor guy might cry, but then I see he is pissed, and I mean fuming, five-alarm-fire pissed.
“Motherfucker,” he snarls. He runs a hand through his hair.
“I’m sorry, man,” Owen says.
“No, I owe you one. Shit, I owe you an apology, Grant. You tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen,” he says.
“I’m sorry, Lee,” Grant says sitting down next to his cousin. “I really am.”
“What do we do now?” Harrison asks. “You’re not going to go through with it, are you?”
Lee shakes his head. “No,” he whispers.
“We need to print these,” I say. “We take them back to the wedding, and we call out Eunice. Turns out she’s not just a bigoted bitch, she’s a corrupt one.”
They all turn and stare at me.
“Grandma Satan is going down, beotches,” I say with a fist pump. “Too soon,” I add in a whisper.
All four men shake their heads at me. I shrug.
Zach
I can hardly believe what is happening. I’m supposed to be in my friend’s wedding and now I’m going to help him stop it.
We look like something out of a movie as we all walk toward the area on the beach where the wedding is scheduled to take place in less than half an hour. Reagan is in front of us and all four of us are lined up behind her.
“Where’s Eunice?” she asks the wedding coordinator.
The woman looks flustered and points toward an air-conditioned restaurant between the pool and the beach.
Reagan nods, and she turns sharply and begins to walk toward the restaurant when Felicia steps in front of her, glaring at all of us.
“Where the fuck have you been?” she seethes. “You do know that the wedding starts in twenty minutes.”
Reagan reaches her hand out to Felicia’s arm. At first, the motion seems kind, but then she gives a sharp push and Felicia topples over.
“What the fuck, Reagan?!” she yelps as she tries to get back up but her tight dress won’t let her.
“Will someone fucking help me up?” she curses and glares at us.
Harrison sighs and puts out his hand, and she gets up.
“Reagan,” she starts.
Reagan puts up a hand.
“Felicia, oh Felicia, where do I even begin. Let’s just say, there isn’t going to be a wedding. So, you can go take off that ridiculous bridesmaid dress,” she says as she begins to walk away.
Felicia’s mouth hangs open. “W-what are you talking about?” she stammers.
Grant grins. “Well, come with us, and you’ll find out,” he says as he follows Reagan.
Felicia remains still, gaping at us as our entourage walks up to the restaurant. I’m inwardly a bit giddy as this is going to be an epic shitshow and best of all my friend isn’t going to be marrying Satan’s spawn.
We march up the steps and into the restaurant. Eunice, AKA Grandma Satan, is standing talking with Lee’s father.
“Grandmother, we need a word,” Lee says sternly.
Eunice gives him a look of part shock and part disapproval.
“Lee, I believe you need to be down with the wedding coordinator,” she says haughtily.