Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run

Jackson was the first one to react. He shot up from his seat and practically yelled, "No way!" His voice cracked from the shock.

"What the hell is this? Am I seeing things? Dylan, pinch me or something—am I dreaming?!"

But while Jackson was freaking out, Richard's face just went dark. He could tell right away this was bad. Really bad.

Jackson grabbed the marriage certificate and flipped it open. The moment he saw the name, he cursed again, even louder.

"Clara?! Clara?!! You married Clara?! When did that happen?! No freaking way! I must be seeing things. Hang on, you've always liked her, right? So if you were going to marry anyone, of course it'd be Clara. So you went behind everyone's back, kept it from the whole Ferguson family, and just went and got married to Clara without telling a soul?!"

He'd barely finished when Nicholas, who'd just taken a sip of his drink, totally lost it and spat whiskey all over the table.

"What did you just say?"

The look in his eyes was pure disbelief, like he literally couldn't process what he'd just heard.

Wait, who likes Clara?

Dylan likes Clara?

hearing things? There was no way this could

wiped his mouth, still staring. "Jackson, say

he finally accepted

about this, you

putting it lightly. The whole Ferguson family

hit the coffee table, Nicholas grabbed it for himself. He stared at

imagined it

turned the certificate over and over, looking for any sign it was fake. At last, he just blurted

Dylan wasn't the type to joke about

the certificate back down, and for a second, he actually looked kind of relieved. "I get it. You just want to tie Clara down, make her miserable forever. This is your way of getting back at

that. He rubbed his

of this had ended up exposing his own feelings

sat there on the table, bright red

much money was

it was just

your wedding

like he'd grown a second head. "Wait, that's it? You're just... cool with this? Richard, aren't you even a