Secrets of a Billionaire

Chapter 6

Amanda’s POV

What have I just gotten myself into?

Mark and I head into the church, hand in hand. Like a couple. A person at the door stops us and asks if we are part of the wedding party (like, duh, I always go around dressed in a white silk wedding gown), and we are immediately directed to where the photo session is getting set up.

“Amanda, darling!” Mom comes to greet me just as soon as she spots me, giving me a brief hug and a fake kiss on both cheeks like she’s French or something. Spoiler, she’s actually Polish. “What are you doing dressed up like that? It makes you look just like a bride! Are you trying to outshine me on my… ahem… your brothers special day?”

She’s one to talk. I notice mom is wearing a lacy white dress with a sweetheart neckline and a pill box hat with a small veil attached. I decide to ignore the ‘special day’ comment.

“Derrick and Lindsey approved my attire, mother,” I tell her, and watch as the smug look on her face starts to c***k just a little. “But I thought they told you to wear beige!”

“Oh, well, I accidentally spilled red wine on my beige suit, so I had to make a last minute alteration!” She explains slyly, trying to make it sound accidental even if it’s anything but. “But never mind all that. Who is your handsome friend? I thought you were bringing d**k, oops, I mean Rick!”

“Rick and I broke up,” I mention, gearing up for an Oscar winning performance. But Mark suddenly steps forward and beats me to it!

“I’m Amanda’s fiancée, Mark,” the man himself butting into the conversation and holding out his hand to my mother. It’s BAD timing, though. He’s throwing off my groove when I need to get my rehearsed lines out before the wedding party arrives. They will be out here any second now!

“Mom, you really should have discussed the wardrobe change with Lindsey!” I tell her, trying to draw her attention away from Mark. “if you’re wearing white like the rest of the wedding party, no one will know that you’re the grooms mother instead of a bridesmaid!”

“What? Fiancée?” Mom sputters, angry and confused. “Are you trying to upstage your brother’s wedding? And what do you mean the wedding party is wearing white? What is going on here?”

“You won’t have time now to change your clothes before the photos!” I say in mock horror, as the bridal party arrives right on cue, the bridesmaids all wearing white, and the bride Lindsey dressed in a beautiful wedding gown, a soft pink extravaganza of silk and tulle. And she looks amazing, just like a princess in a fairy tale. The mother of the bride is in a deep rose color suit, the exact shade of the main wedding color.

My dad Bill takes mother by the hand before the inevitable meltdown can ruin the photo shoot, and we can all hear mother off in the distance having a hissy fit of epic proportions. The bridal party is in great spirits, however. No one has to remind them to smile for the camera. I see Lindsey wave at me, and blow me a kiss, obviously thankful that our plan worked.

“I get it now,” Mark whispers in my ear, and his deep voice sends shivers down my spine. “That was some great acting… I’m very impressed!”

“Thanks,” I reply back quietly in his ear, trying not to sound miffed. “But I wish you hadn’t said anything to mom. You nearly threw off my timing.”

A half hour later, mom is brought back, scowling, for family photos. I reapply my lipstick, and take my place next to my brother, behind our parents. Mark hangs back, and I see him texting on his phone.

“Won’t Mark be in any of the photos?” My mother brings up once we are supposedly done with our part of the photo shoot. “He’s going to be part of the family now, too, so we should include him!”

Silence. Derrick and Lindsey look at each other, confused.

“Who… who is Mark?” My brother Derrick asks mom after almost a minute goes by and nobody says anything.

“Why, Mark is standing just over there,” mother points towards my plus one. I think she’s trying to paint me as the drama queen now to take the heat off of herself. “He’s Amanda’s fiancée! There ought be family photos with him, don’t you agree?”

“I’d love a couple of photos,” Mark says, coming to stand beside me. “But I can pay the photographer for my share. I wouldn’t want to impose.”

Mark goes over to the photographer and they talk for a couple minutes while mother looks smug, and everyone else stares at me in shock.

“When did you two get engaged?” Derrick demands to know. “I’ve never even met this guy!”

“Very recently,” I say, pleading with my brother to understand, and not be angry. “I didn’t intend to say anything today, I swear! It only just happened, and I didn’t think to warn Mark not to tell anyone. I’m sorry!”

Derrick doesn’t look any happier, but he nods in understanding.

“Wow, that’s some ring!” Lindsey says, suddenly noticing the gaudy stone on my finger. Lindsey’s is less than half the size, and I want to slink away in shame. I’m really starting to wish a hole would open up in the ground and swallow me alive. But I’m sure even that would be considered attention getting.

“Nothings too good for my fiancée,” Mark says, strolling up to me and casually throwing an arm around my waist and kissing my cheek.

Meanwhile, the photographer obviously doesn’t mind an extra couple minutes of work for a larger sale. My folks, my brother, and soon to be sister-in-law get into position surrounding Mark and I as the photographer works, getting us into a couple “fun” family poses as well as one very serious one.

Then the photographer takes a photo with just Mark, myself, and my parents. And then a couple photos of just us. I try to look happy, instead of scared to death that mother was going to use my engagement as the means of causing wedding day chaos, and making me out to be the villain for a change.

“Just a few more,” the photographer says. “Turn towards each other… yes… now look into each others eyes … perfect… now let’s see you kiss!”

Mark starts off by giving me a brief little kiss on the lips, just like I expected, but then his arms are around me, and he is tilting me backwards, and the kiss becomes very passionate, very quickly! I almost forget that there is an audience! And I’m suddenly feeling very turned on.

“Wow,” I say afterwards. He smirks back, and does a funny little wiggle thing with his eyebrows, and I can’t help but giggle.

Then we’re all told by the wedding planner that it’s time to head into the church hall to get seated, the wedding begins in 15 minutes!

My part in the wedding, if you want to call it that, is basically over now. I hear a few titters from the crowd as I’m being seated on the grooms side, in the front row. Mark beside me.

I notice him whip out his phone. I can see that someone named Robert has been texting him just now. He quickly replies.

Robert: Bro, answer me! We really need to talk!

Robert: Where the f**k are you?

Mark: I’ve been pretty busy. Maybe you don’t recall, but I’m getting married today!

Robert: Dude, you do NOT want to marry that cheating ho! I have proof she was with some other guy last night.

Mark: I’m aware of everything. See you at the church at 4!

Then he starts texting Corina, which I vaguely recalling him saying was his fiancée’s name.

Corina: Babe, Robert says he can’t find you since last night. Is everything OK? You haven’t got cold feet, have you?

Mark: My feet are toasty here in hell. I’m getting married today, no matter what happens. See you later.

Then Mark puts the phone away just as my parents are seated beside me.

“Have you two set a date for the wedding yet, darling?” Mother tries talking to me loudly around my father, who tries unsuccessfully to shush her. He’s been steamrollered by my mother and her ‘exuberant’ personality his entire life. “It’s probably too late to book a Fall wedding. What are your thoughts about next April?”

“Can we talk about this later?” I say, knowing now that she’s got her claws into me, this will end up being the only topic of conversation for the entire day. “We are here today for Derrick and Lindsey!”

But I know how my mother thinks, and I can almost hear the gears turning in her head! It’s one thing for her to be mother of the groom, but mother of the BRIDE is a whole different thing! THAT woman has real power! And I’m suddenly glad that I’m not going to have a long drawn out engagement or a huge wedding engineered by the mother of the bride train, with every detail exactly to her own tastes and not mine.

As much as I’ve always dreamed of marriage, a loving husband, and family, I’ve dreaded my mother thinking she has any right to be a part of any of it. Always insisting that things are ‘her way’ or no way. If I didn’t love my dad and my brother so much, I would have gone no contact years ago.

And then we all rise together as the wedding march begins to play. Mark takes my hand and caresses it gently. It’s really rather comforting. But is this just for show, or what? I’m confused.