I'd have expected to turn and see just about anyone barging in on our wedding. My first thought, in fact, was Olivia, who'd been trying to reach me for days through private numbers to say her piece.

But no one knew of Axel and I getting married except for the people in the room at that moment. I'd said nothing, Chi had literally found out hours ago and had been with me since then, and Axel sure as hell wouldn't have told anyone.

His assistant, however...

The person barging into our wedding took me by surprise, at first, until I connected all the dots.

"Stop right there," said Estelle Levine, stomping the few feet that separated us from the door, arriving before us.

My jaw ached from dropping so fast. The clerk fell into his seat behind the desk where we'd been standing. Chi gasped.

Axel stiffened beside me. "You," he flipped to his right, facing his assistant, "you did this? You called Estelle?"

To his credit, the assistant didn't try to lie, didn't even bother to pretend. He shrugged, winced, and hung his head. "I didn't call her, but her P.I. has been trailing me for days."

Axel growled. "And you didn't tell me?" His hands curled into fists. The heat radiating off him prompted me to grab his arm, to block him from pummeling his assistant to the point of needing a hospital visit. "Damn you. I don't even care if you have anything on me at this point. Get the fuck out of here. We're done."

Again, the assistant didn't protest. With a nod at Estelle, he scurried out, slamming the door behind him.

"And you," Axel twisted to Estelle, poison in his voice, fire in his demeanor, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Estelle's eyebrows lurched up as she glowered at him. She wore ripped jeans and a graphic t-shirt, her hair up in a messy bun, flip-flops thrown on in haste. She must have been tipped off mere minutes ago, and raced across town to prevent us from getting married.

"What am I doing?" She gestured at Axel, at me, at the clerk silently sulking behind us. "What are you doing? Are you fucking crazy?"

Axel folded his arms, after nudging me into standing behind him. "What I'm doing is none of your business, Estelle."

He insisted when I didn't budge; he grabbed me, moved me, making me cower behind him.

Was he protecting me from her? Or...protecting her from me?

I was shaking, unable to formulate coherent thoughts. We'd been on the verge of fixing this entire situation, and Estelle had to swoop in and ruin it all? Why? Why would she do such a thing?

And I'd thought we were headed in the right direction, her and I.

"I was under the impression she called off the P.I.," I whispered to no one in particular, though both Axel and Chi were close enough to hear me.

Chi didn't dare say a word, backing away to the closest wall to keep out of the discussion.

"And you thought you could marry some random chick in a hasty wedding days before mine?" Estelle sounded mad, maddened, a woman teetering on the edge of a psychotic break. I'd seen her irritated, I'd seen her judgmental and bordering on Bridezilla, but certainly not this furious. Axel had concealed me for my benefit, to save me from Estelle's temper. "Are you insane?"

"You're insane for thinking you can get away with something so stupid, Estelle." Axel's voice was leveled, but I detected the trembles of fury in every word. "You'd dare interrupt? After everything I've done for you?"

"Consider this interruption my thanks, big brother." Estelle's eyes narrowed on me, and she shook a wobbly finger in my direction. "That is who you want to marry?"

"That person," Axel side-stepped to further hide me, "has a name, and it's Vivienne Clarke. And I love her."

Estelle released the most witch-like cackle I'd ever heard outside of a spooky movie. "You love her? Please. You've known her for five minutes."

"Don't you dare talk to me about love, Estelle." Axel's words were pointed, clearly indicating past issues that he didn't want to embarrass Estelle with, but would if she kept pushing.

"This is forever, Axel, and you know that." Estelle's timbre dropped to a lower level, but the menace in her stance didn't dissipate. She stood perched to attack, knees slightly bent, claws seemingly out to rip through us. Through me, specifically. "We don't do divorces in our family, remember?"

I tipped sideways, bypassing Axel's large body, blinking at Estelle. "Huh?"

Estelle's smirk sent icy shivers up my spine. "Ah, yes." She took a few strides to the side to better see me, better study me and my live reaction to her comments. "If you'd gotten to know my dear brother before fucking him, you'd know our family comes with a lot of rules, hm?" Her smirk widened to comically evil proportions. "Sounds like Axel didn't tell you that little part."

My legs gave out, and I fell against him, but he stood firm, ensuring neither of us collapsed any further.

"Axel?" My voice was so tiny, so tentative, I didn't think he'd hear me.

"It's a clause," he muttered, but he didn't sound so phased by Estelle's cruel remarks. "And I didn't tell her because I didn't foresee us ever even discussing divorce."

"That's cute, Axel." Estelle's pointed finger switched to him. "You don't know her. You can't foresee anything."

His shoulders lifted as he poked his chest out, the heat on his body growing uncomfortable. "Estelle—"

"—we can't get divorced. It's a company policy, a family policy, set up by Dad. Don't be dumb, brother." Her gaze was fire, her mouth releasing smoke. Never had I noticed how such a bubbly woman could be so incredibly awful under the surface. "If you're doing this, you're doing it for life."

The way she implied I was low-tier, nothing good, and not worth marriage made my heart sink. She'd trusted me to plan her wedding, trusted my vision and expertise, but when it came to her brother, I wasn't good enough?

No, because I wasn't rich, didn't have a wealthy enough background, and she likely thought I hadn't known Axel long enough to care about him.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I sensed someone wrapping their hand around my arm, tugging me backwards—Chi.

"Don't," they whispered, shaking their head when I turned to them. "Leave them to it."

"But she's insulting me," I hissed back, returning my face to Estelle, to scowl.

"Let her," said Chi, "and see how he defends you."

I gulped, unwilling to keep quiet when someone was defacing me, harming me. But Chi was right—this was a family matter, a brother-sister quarrel I shouldn't get mixed up in. For now.

"So," Estelle clicked her tongue, a satisfied glow about her as I backed away, "this is who you want for life, Axel? A random chick—"

"—she's not random—" he blurted, almost screaming the words.

"—with a blurry background that you looked up online once and saw her picture and thought she was cute?"

"She's beautiful," said Axel, and Chi mumbled the same near my ear, at the same time.

"Not to mention," Estelle snarled at me, "that she was seconds away from hopping into bed with her ex."

That was enough.

"Estelle!" My blood boiled, and I shoved Chi out of the way, and crammed myself next to Axel, returning Estelle's snarl tenfold. "You did get Olivia in on all this, didn't you? You twisted her mind and told her to seduce me, to pretend to want me back?"

"Oh," Estelle snorted, "she wasn't pretending. I saw a need—her needing you, that is—and I turned her in the right direction, that's all."

"You did this?" Axel didn't even attempt to hide me anymore; he let me stand beside him, both of us overflowing with fury towards his sister. "You planned all that ex-girlfriend shit?"

"Of course I did." Estelle leveled a stare at him that told me they had years of experiencing daring each other into staring contests. I had no doubt Estelle won often; she was fierce, her gaze stone-cold and destabilizing. "To test her. And," she switched that stare to me, "you failed."

I shivered, but shook my head. "I didn't. Olivia and I didn't sleep together."

"Oh, but you wanted to. That little scene on the terrace?" Estelle grinned maliciously at me as she saw my composure falter. "Yeah, I caught that. Thought I was too busy with Mollie to notice? I can multitask."

"Does it matter what she wanted? She didn't act on it," said Axel, a quiver to his timbre. He was still angry about the whole Olivia situation, rightfully so, but he knew I'd controlled myself. He knew that with Olivia, it was all toxically physical, and he'd watched me block her number, erase her from my life. "This is ridiculous. You need to leave, Estelle."

Estelle's eyes bulged out as she wagged a finger at him. "No, I need to—"

"—leave me alone, because I'm a grown adult?" Axel took a single step forward; one so threatening, I almost worried again that he'd strike his own sister. Not that I blamed him, but I didn't roll with physical violence. "So is Vivienne, by the way, though you keep demoting her to a pre-college teenager with no motives but marrying her celebrity crush. Which isn't the case. We," he snagged my hand, "chose this."

"Fine." Estelle straightened up. "I didn't want to go this far, but I have no choice. If she marries you," she peered between us both, "she's off the wedding."

I swallowed a gasp as I spun to Axel, twitching with frustration. He didn't turn to me, but his eyes found mine, and slitted.

This was the whole point of us getting married—at least, it was, until we realized we were in it for our feelings, too. To save my career by protecting me from being fired, and to ensure Brent didn't stick a lawsuit on Axel.

But after all that—Olivia's tattling, her being partially manipulated by Estelle—Estelle would fire me, anyway?

Axel took another stride forward; Estelle didn't move an inch. "I'm the one who hired her, Estelle. Not you. You can't fire her."

I was on the brink of tears. Of anger or fear or disappointment, I couldn't tell; but I had to hold it all in. If I cried in front of Estelle, it was proof that she won. And she couldn't win.

"I thought..." I sucked in a deep breath, trying to mimic Estelle's confident posture. "I thought you weren't the evil sister?"

For a split second, Estelle's facade broke. She flinched, a flicker of confusion in her gaze, her fingers twitching at her sides. But it didn't last long enough for me to have hope.

"I'm not evil. I'm realistic." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't trust you, Vivienne. So of course I didn't call off my P.I. Because of course, you're still another gold-digger."

"Another?" Chi piped up, though they smacked their mouth with their hand immediately, instant regret in their features.

"Oh," Estelle rubbed her hands together, "so that's one more thing Axel hasn't told you. How many gold-diggers have come to his door, feigning love and admiration, promising endless devotion, but all they wanted was endorsement or checks to fund their various endeavors? Shame that he's leaving out so much pertinent information."

I couldn't tell if Estelle was trying to demolish me, or to make Axel less appealing to me so that I'd walk away.

But I had no intention of changing my mind. I knew there was much I hadn't learned about Axel yet, and I planned to discover all that later. There was nothing so immense that I wouldn't want to marry him. Estelle couldn't convince me otherwise.

"That's why I'm so protective of him." A tiny breach in Estelle's voice showed emotion, true emotion. She did care about Axel; why else would she force her way in here and stop our wedding? "Because he's an idiot with a huge heart, and doesn't see red flags when they're flashing in front of him. But I do."

I frowned, jamming a thumb to my chest. "I'm a red flag? You can't be serious." I swallowed. "I did nothing to warrant this, Estelle."

Estelle huffed. "You came on to him in St. Tropez—"

Axel grunted. "I came on to her, Estelle. If you would have talked to me first, we could have—"

"—you lured him in," said Estelle, disregarding her brother to focus on me. "You and your phony designer outfits and your fake purses and your not-so-exquisite proficiency. Yeah, you're a fraud."

I gasped, Chi gasped, even Axel gasped at this. But none of us had the words to stop Estelle's tirade, and in any case, she seemed intent on letting out all her thoughts before any of us could interfere.

"And now you're trying to marry my brother and get everything you ever wanted? I'm sure he promised you riches. A house, a car, a new wardrobe, a company of your own?" She watched me cautiously, as if I'd been about to agree with anything she said. I wouldn't confirm any of it—though she was right about the company part. "Nope. Not if I have my say."

Axel swiped the air in front of him. "You don't have a say. That's the point, Estelle. You have no right to be here, to tell me how to live my life. I appreciate your protection," he set a hand to his heart, bowing at her in respect, "but I don't need it. I'm not an idiot, and that you'd say that so blatantly? It hurts."

"I'm sorry." And for a moment, Estelle did look apologetic. She did look like she was about to retract it all, to move on, to let us do what we wanted, what we needed to do. But then something flashed across her face, and she squared her shoulders, her arms tight at her sides. "If you get married, I'm sharing everything with the press. All my P.I.'s findings, all the pictures he took, all the things he overheard."

"Estelle." Axel grimaced, but didn't move forward as I expected him to. He was rooted to the spot, as if torn between attacking her or tumbling backwards in shock. "You wouldn't."

"I would." Estelle kept face, not showing any hesitation. She was dead serious.

A bride days away from her wedding, possessed by some demon, bent on destroying my life and fucking up her brother's, too. All because she had a hunch that was so far from the truth; all because she didn't want her big brother to find his happiness.

"I'll tell them all, and then you'll lose your job, Vivienne, and Axel will have no say in it." She pretended to study her nails, but in reality her gaze was on me. "Your reputation, big brother, will be ruined, but if it takes you down a notch and wakes you up...so be it."

"Estelle." Axel's voice wasn't menacing; it was pleading. I rotated to see his eyes shimmering, his mouth down-turned. Everything large and in charge about him was...gone. "You can't."

"I must." Estelle cocked her head, gaping at her brother before she pinched her lips. "Someone has to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life. And if it has to be me, if you have to hate me for it, I'll bite that bullet. I'll take the blame. But you're not marrying Vivienne, not while I'm around to prevent it."

☼☼☼