IT OCCURRED to Aiden, as he waited at the top of the aisle, that weddings weren’t that unlike a stage production. There were leading players, an audience, and an elaborate set. But he’d never produced anything before that would have such an impact on his own life.
His palms had long since started to go clammy, and he wiped them along the edges of his dress trousers while his heart beat hard against his chest.
Then an Irish harp played its first chords and he turned around and looked at Caitlin, walking slowly towards him.
In a room packed with people, a sea of faces that seemed to fade around him, he could see only her. That was how it was supposed to be when it was for real, wasn’t it?
Except if it was for real the bride would look radiant. Not as if she was walking to her own execution. Even her steps were stilted, her whole frame tense. Her eyes flickered around at the people on either side of the aisle; her throat moved as she swallowed. And when she finally turned her eyes to meet his he could see the anguish there and his heart tore.
What had he been thinking when he’d created all this? Who was he to play with people’s emotions? In a way it would be just retribution if she walked away from him and never looked back…
Caitlin, meanwhile, had to force herself to take every forward step. The hand holding her bouquet was shaking, and her breathing was choppy as her heart tried to thud its way out of her chest. This was it, then. In a few minutes Aiden would say his ‘I do’ after hers, and then she would have to face these people and tell them it was all a lie.
She glanced around at them all, memorising their rapt expressions at the sight of the bride taking her steps towards the man she supposedly loved. And then her eyes moved to Aiden, and her heart twisted so painfully that she almost couldn’t breathe.
The man she loved. That part wasn’t a lie. And as he slowly smiled at her she wished that the rest wasn’t a lie. That she could be walking towards him to make vows that she would live the rest of her life by. How had she got herself into this mess? How could she have been naive enough to think that something like this could make things better and not worse?
It was a penance, that was what it was. By weaving a web of lies around the people that meant the most to her she had been in turn punished, by being shown something that she wanted more than she had ever even known.
But she of all people should have known that life was unfair.
The registrar took a step forward and started speaking the words that everyone expected to hear. Brendan then gave his daughter’s hand into Aiden’s and stepped back, moving into his place beside her mother at the head of the room.
Caitlin’s eyes flickered to meet Aiden’s, and then she looked over her shoulder at her family. She looked at each of their faces as they smiled at her, her mother dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. Would they understand? Would they forgive her?
Two sets of ‘I do’, and then the deed would be done.
Aiden’s fingers squeezed around hers and she glanced down, frowning slightly at the chill she felt from his skin. She looked up at him, saw him avoid her eyes, watched his jaw clenching. And she felt cold right along her spine.
He released her hand as the man in front of them rhymed off his words, and Caitlin felt the distance between them as some giant void.
‘Do you, Caitlin…?’
She tried to focus on the words, to say hers at the right time. And then the man looked at her, his eyes questioning. She swallowed to dampen her dry throat and managed a flat-toned, ‘I do.’
She’d done her part.
Her eyes moved to Aiden as the words were repeated for him. He didn’t turn to look at her. He frowned, he glanced upwards, and then he finally looked at her as the words finished.
A pin could have dropped in the room as he said nothing.
Caitlin stared at him. I do. She willed him to say the two words that would end the charade for them both. But he continued to stare at her with eyes that lacked their usual depth of warm blue.
She raised her brows in question.
He still stayed silent.
‘What are you doing?’ She whispered the words at him as he began to turn towards the sea of faces.
He took a breath and leaned slightly closer to her to whisper back, ‘Remember your promise, Caitlin Rourke.’
What was he doing? He had to say ‘I do’ to complete the contract. And he hadn’t said it!
‘Aiden?’
Aiden shook his head and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. ‘I’m sorry about this.’
Then he looked forward and took a step closer to the crowded room. He cleared his throat. ‘Folks, I’m afraid there isn’t going to be a wedding today.’
There were gasps in the crowd and a murmur of exclamations. Caitlin’s father got to his feet.
Aiden held up a hand. ‘If you’ll just hear me out…’
Caitlin stepped towards him and grabbed his sleeve. ‘What are you doing? You haven’t said “I do”. You’re supposed to say it first.’
His eyes moved to hers again. ‘That’s just it, Caitlin. I was never going to say it.’
Her dark eyes widened in surprise. What? He’d never intended to complete this? He was stopping them both from getting the pay-off at the end? Why? Why would he put them through all this if he’d had no intention of it coming to its logical conclusion? How could he put her through this, be there to support her all this time, if he knew all along he had no intention of allowing her to do what she’d set out to do? It just didn’t make any sense!
Her eyes strayed to her family, to her father’s face. And she realised she’d failed. He would still lose the business he’d built from the ground; they would still lose the home they’d all grown up in. And her heart broke.
She removed her hand from Aiden’s sleeve and stepped away from him as the tears formed in her eyes. She looked up at him, at the face of the man she’d thought she knew so well. Who she’d trusted. And it was like looking at a stranger.
He looked back at her family. ‘Up until three months ago Caitlin and I had never met.’
Brendan frowned in confusion. ‘Then what the hell is all this?’
‘It’s a TV Show. It’s called Fake Fiancé.’
‘It’s what?’ Her mother and brothers stood up and Brendan stepped towards Aiden, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. ‘This is all some kind of joke?’
‘No, sir. No joke,’ Aiden took another breath and continued. ‘Caitlin agreed to do this show, to fool all of you into thinking it was a real wedding…’ he paused and added the final insult ‘…for money.’
Caitlin froze as a sob escaped her mother’s throat, and she watched as disappointment entered her eyes. Then she looked at her father’s face and saw the understanding. And then the anger. She started to shake uncontrollably.
‘She believed that was why we were both doing this. That I was fooling all my friends the same way she was—for the same cash payment.’ He turned slightly and looked at her. ‘But that’s not true.’
Tears streamed down her pale cheeks as she looked at him. ‘What?’
Aiden’s jaw clenched and unclenched. ‘I was supposed to make things more difficult for you. It was my job to up the conflict by doing things like insisting on a big wedding when that was the last thing you wanted. That was the plan from the beginning.’
Caitlin shook her head slowly, suddenly making sense of that one occasion when he had done something she hadn’t understood. But at the same time she was still confused. Because if he’d been there to make things so difficult for her then why had he been so supportive? She would have quit long ago if he hadn’t been there. Was that why he’d done it? To keep her in the show? Was there no end to the depth of his betrayal? Because that was what it was. Betrayal. Betrayal of her faith in him, of the depth of feelings she’d developed for him. For weeks now she’d been scared she would lose him. When in fact he’d never been there to begin with.
‘Why?’ The question forced itself from her mouth. What kind of person could do this to her?
‘This is my show.’ He waved a hand in the direction of Mick and Joe, who were moving in with the camera. ‘These are my camera crews. I’m the producer of the show, Caitlin.’
The room went completely silent as she stared at him. Even her tears stopped. And the overwhelming emotion of love that she’d felt for him turned to hatred in a single heartbeat.
She turned away from him and looked at her family. She might have just lost one person that she cared about. But she had to try and salvage something. Her voice shook as she stepped towards her father. ‘I had to try and get the money somehow.’
‘By lying to us?’ Brendan’s face grew red as he held his emotions in check. ‘You think it was worth all this?’
She watched as he waved his hand at the room.
‘All these people came here for you. Because they care about you. And all the time you’ve been laughing behind their backs!’
‘It wasn’t like that!’ She choked out the words as the tears came again. ‘I hated lying to you all. It hurt every single day. But I had to try, Dad. I had to try to get the money.’
‘Like this?’ He shook his head and wrapped his arm around her mother, his eyes straying to the silent tears that streamed down her cheeks. Then he looked back at his daughter. ‘Nothing is worth this, Caitlin. We could have lost everything else we had but we would always have had each other. I never thought you would be capable of this level of deceit.’ He shook his head again. ‘A family is worth far more than what’s in its bank account. And now you’ve ruined any trust we ever had in you.’
A sob escaped Caitlin’s throat as he turned and led her mother away from her, back down the aisle she’d just walked up. She then turned and looked at her bridesmaids as they walked past her.
Izzy just frowned and shook her head. But Cara, with tears in her eyes, stopped for a second in front of her.
‘I knew something was wrong. You messed up big-style this time. How could you do this to us?’
They moved away from her and followed her parents.
Caitlin didn’t see their path blocked by Aisling, because she turned towards Aiden. He’d been watching them leave too, a look of panic on his face. But as Caitlin stepped towards him he turned.
She slapped him hard across the face. ‘I don’t even need to tell you what you’ve done!’ She spat the words at him. ‘Because you already know, don’t you? Whoever you are.’
She stared at him for a long second, and then started down the aisle after the others. To say what when she got there, she didn’t know. But she had to try.
‘Caitlin, wait!’
She ignored the shouted words and picked up her skirts to walk faster.
‘Stop them!’ Aiden stepped down and walked towards her with long strides. ‘I need you all to take a minute—please!’
Brendan turned around from where he’d been arguing with Aisling. ‘Why in hell’s name should we listen to anything else you have to say?’
Aiden stopped, stood a little taller, and raised his chin a visible inch. His words were determined. ‘Because if you love your daughter even half as much as I know you do you’ll want to understand why she did this.’ His eyes strayed to Caitlin’s back, where she stood frozen in the middle of the aisle. ‘And how much it cost her every day doing it.’
When Brendan took a moment to consider his words, Aiden waded on in, his words softer. ‘Mr Rourke, I think you know why she did it. Even if you don’t know how she could do it. All I’m asking is that you take a few minutes so I can let you see what we’ve seen.’
The older man looked around at the faces of the rest of his family, and then into Caitlin’s tormented eyes.
He folded his arms across his chest. ‘You have five minutes, and then I fully expect never to have to hear your name again.’