“Ava,” Chloe said, her voice dangerously sweet. “Everything looks… adequate. ”
“Chloe,” I replied, forcing a professional smile. “Glad you could make it. We can run through the processional as soon as everyone is ready. ”
She glided toward me, her silk dress whispering against the marble. “Oh, I’m ready,” she murmured, her eyes flicking over my shoulder to where Rhys stood, his posture suddenly rigid. “I’m more than ready. I had a very… illuminating evening. Didn’t we, Jessica?”
Jessica, who had been so kind and gentle in the dressing room, now smirked. A cruel, triumphant little twist of her lips. “Definitely eye-opening. ”
My blood ran cold. This was it. The polite prelude to the execution. I tried to steer the conversation back to neutral territory. “Okay, so for the processional, the groomsmen will enter from the side door here. Marcus, you’ll take your place…”
“Stop. ”
The word, though spoken softly, cracked through the air like a whip. Everyone froze. Marcus turned, a frown creasing his brow. Rhys’s whole body went taut.
Chloe took another step, closing the space between us until I could smell the sharp, expensive scent of her perfume. “Don’t you dare stand there with your clipboard and your schedules and pretend you’re a professional. ”
My mouth went dry. “Chloe, I don’t think this is the time or the place…”
“Oh, I do,” she hissed, her voice rising in volume, echoing in the vast, silent room. “I think this is the perfect time. In front of everyone you’re supposed to be working for. The people whose most important day you’ve been paid a small fortune to manage. ”
Her eyes blazed with a righteous fury. “I hired you. I trusted you. I brought you into my life, into my family. And how do you repay me. By screwing my fiancé’s best man. My brother?”
A collective gasp went through the small audience. My face burned with a heat so intense I thought I might spontaneously combust. The clipboard slipped from my nerveless fingers and clattered to the floor.
“Chloe, that’s not what happened,” Rhys’s voice was a low growl. He started toward us. “This is on me. Leave her out of it. ”
“Leave her out of it?” Chloe didn’t even look at him. “She’s the wedding planner. The one who is supposed to be above reproach. Tell me, Ava, is this part of the package you offer all your clients. A little something extra for the best man?”
The insult landed like a physical blow. “Chloe, please,” I whispered, my voice trembling.
“Private?” She laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. “You forfeited the right to privacy when you put your tongue down my brother’s throat where my friends could see you. You think I’m going to let you manage my wedding day. My wedding day? I wouldn’t trust you to manage a bake sale. You are the most unprofessional, duplicitous, backstabbing whore I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. ”
Tears pricked my eyes, hot and shameful. I looked past her, searching for an anchor, and my gaze met Marcus’s. He looked utterly poleaxed, his face a canvas of disbelief and dawning horror as he looked from me to Rhys, then back again.
“You’re fired, Ava,” Chloe spat. “Consider your contract terminated. And don’t think for a second this is the end of it. I have a very loud voice in this city. By the time I’m done, you won’t be able to plan a dog’s birthday party. I will ruin you. I will dismantle your pathetic little business brick by brick until there is nothing left. ”
The threat, so absolute and delivered with such chilling conviction, finally broke me.
“Chloe, that’s enough!” Marcus finally found his voice, stepping forward and putting a hand on her arm. “Stop it. Just… stop. ”
“Don’t you defend her!” she shrieked, but the tirade had burned itself out, leaving a crater of scorched earth in its wake. Chloe ripped her arm from Marcus’s grasp, shot me one last look of pure hatred, and stormed out of the ballroom, Jessica and Lauren trailing behind her.