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?

was

grabbed a napkin and wiped his

he finally accepted it was real, he put it down with hands that were

out about this, you know you're dead,

was putting it lightly. The whole

table, Nicholas grabbed it for himself. He stared at

imagined it after

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

wasn't the type

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

help but wince at that. He rubbed his

ended up exposing his own feelings for

marriage certificate just sat there on the table,

pulled out a card-God knows how much money was on it, he'd never bothered to check—and set it right on top

like it

here's your

"Wait, that's it? You're just... cool with this? Richard, aren't