#Chapter 89 – Rehearsal Dinner

A few hours later, when the boys have been neatly dressed in their first suits of the weekend, there comes a knock at the door.

I smooth my hands over my own black cocktail dress and go to answer it. I let out a whoosh of breath when I see that it’s Victor. “Come in,” I say, opening the door wide for him. As soon as he enters, though, I close the door quickly.

He turns to me, frowning a little. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, raising my hands to check and see that my hair is still in place. I laugh a little. “Your mom just spooked me a bit, is all.”

“My mom?” he says, turning fully to stare at me. “My mother came to see you?”

“Yeah,” I say, nodding. “Didn’t you know?”

Victor slowly shakes his head back and forth and I can see him processing. “What did she say to you?”

“That your family was going to be hard on me,” I say. “I’m grateful for the warning, but I admit, I’m more anxious than I was before.”

Victor glances back at the boys. “Did she see them?”

I nod. “She was really nice to them. She said they reminded me of you.”

He nods, considering. “My mother is a…tactical woman. I wanted to be here when she met them, but clearly, she had other plans.”

He turns his full attention on me, then. “She’s not wrong, Evelyn,” he says. “I should have warned you before – my father, my brother, they will take Amelia’s side and see you as an interloper. But it’s nothing you can’t handle.”

I laugh a little, sardonically, and press a hand to my forehead. “Should I even go to this dinner, Victor? Honestly, the boys are safe here – they can go alone –“

closer. “Well well,” he says, repeating his mother’s phrase. “I didn’t think it’d take

narrowing my eyes, feeling my will turn to steel within me. “I’m not afraid of anything,” I say, meaning it. Victor nods, satisfied, and turns back to the room where the boys are lounging on the couch, discussing how fast they would go if they did go over the

watch him go over to them, their enthusiastic greeting, and am grateful, suddenly, that Victor knows me well enough to challenge me in a moment like this. A few minutes ago I was shaking in my boots – well, stilettos – but now, I feel ready to

boys,” I say, and the three of them turn to face me. “Let’s go get

start of Victor and Amelia’s rehearsal dinner. Laugher and conversation ring from the room as we enter it and I

to be afraid of – these are your family, and they’re all

it’s true. Victor gives me a warm smile and an encouraging nod. We each take a boy by the hand and walk into

already here, laughing her tinkly little laugh amongst a throng of admiring friends and family. I don’t recognize anyone, but she holds court in the center of the

tall Alpha standing in front of me, his green eyes

“I’d like you

and holds out his hand. “Nice to

nice to meet

Ian says firmly, and then puts an arm around his brother’s shoulders, pulling him forward a step. “This

himself, and anxiously puts out his hand as well. “I am

is a gentle, pleased laugh, not one to make Alvin feel ashamed. Rafe shakes his hand. “Well, it is very nice to meet you too, Alvin. We’ll see what we can do about making you come out of your shell. Did you know, I am your uncle? Your dad’s brother, in fact. Younger, of

back to me with excitement in his

Rafe’s kindness. “We’re getting all kinds of

of them. “I’m quite glad to have the honor of being

beam up at him, equally charmed, and I’m surprised again at the visual likeness between all four. It’s remarkable, how easily my boys fit in with this

pockets in

clearly excited to introduce his father to

he laughs, gesturing for them to go deeper into the room. As the three of them go, he raises an eyebrow at me.

after him, I’ll be fine. He nods with a small smile and turns

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