Beauty and the Bridesmaid

Chapter Twenty

She presses her face even closer up to mine. I can smell her floral perfume, one that she probably borrowed from Lela. “Oh, because you’re so perfect, aren’t you, Jade?” She annunciates her words clearly, letting the venom spill over each syllable.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at you! You go around acting like you’re the perfect bridesmaid and everything in your life is just so rosy, isn’t it? You wouldn’t dream of ruining your loyalty to Lela, so you’ve got Josh to do that for you.”

The look on Emily’s face is pure fire. Growing up, she was always the mature and sensible older sister I never had. I even envied Lela for having someone like Emily to look out for her. She’s always been much more reserved than her younger sibling, rarely speaking her mind and only ever doing so in that quiet manner of hers. For her to attack me like this is completely out of character, fuelled only by her fierce protectiveness for her sister.

I consider her angry words before I reply. Whatever I say, she’s not going to accept that Josh turning up is not my responsibility. “You talk about loyalty, but what about Ash? Am I not allowed to want to stay loyal to him too?”

“That’s why you care so much about Ash, isn’t it? You don’t want him to marry Lela because that means he can’t marry you.” Emily smirks and folds her arms across her chest triumphantly.

“Really?” I say with a laugh. “That’s your clever theory?”

“I never said it was clever. It just seems a fairly obvious solution to me.”

My brow wrinkles in confusion. “A solution to what?”

“As to why you’re so desperate to wreck your best friend’s wedding.”

I’m about to fight back when someone else steps in to defend me.  “That’s not what Jade’s doing,” Damien announces, looking Emily directly in the eye.

“How would you know?” she says. “You’re probably part of her plan.”

“This isn’t fair, Emily,” he tells her.

“No, what she’s done to my sister isn’t fair.”

Damien sighs and turns to look at me for the first time since Josh walked in. “Jade, do you have anything to do with Josh’s arrival?”

I shake my head firmly.

Emily laughs. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“It does to me,” Damien replies. “Look at her face. If she were lying, she’d be bright red and shaking like a leaf right now.” He turns back to face me. “No offence, Jade, but you’re a terrible liar.”

Unable to argue with him, Emily simply focuses in on me, saying, “I know you’re behind this. And if Lela doesn’t walk down that aisle tomorrow, I’ll be holding you personally responsible.” Then she swivels on her heels and marches off.

“You really believe me then?” I ask Damien. “You know I didn’t do this, don’t you?”

“I’ll be honest,” he says, holding his hands up, “I did think you had when I first saw that Josh guy, but your reaction just then proves that you didn’t.”

“Because you know I can’t tell lies?”

“Exactly,” he says with a smile.

I turn back to lean against the bar in front of us, resting my head on my hands in despair. “Oh God. What if Ash asks me directly about Josh and Lela? He must have known something was up when I told him that I don’t know what’s going on.”