Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Andrew kept a close eye on me for the next few days. He insisted on driving me to and from work and came by to spend lunch with me. I was starting to wonder if he was getting any of his own work done, but I decided that he knew what he was doing and wouldn’t let anything interfere with his Alpha King duties.

Still, he couldn’t shadow me forever. On the fifth day, I had an appointment to drive to Eliza’s house to meet with her and Nikolas to discuss their wedding plans. Andrew wanted to join me, but he had several important meetings lined up that day.

“Are you sure that you don’t want to reschedule? Maybe have them drive to Ever After Weddings?” Andrew asked at breakfast.

I shook my head and swallowed my bite of bacon.

“I can’t reschedule at the last minute. It’s very unprofessional. Besides, I don’t want to make them drive all the way here so soon after Nikola*’s heart attack.”

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but he eventually nodded.

“You will be careful, right?”

“Of course.”

“And you will call me the moment that something happens, right?”

“I will.”

Andrew sighed and took a drink of coffee.

“Then I suppose that there’s no way for me to stop you.”

My l*p quirked in a half-smirk.

“None at all.”

He looked up at me and mirrored my half-smirk.

“May the Goddess be with you, then.”

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Chapter 13

Eliza, Nikolas, and I sat at Eliza’s dining table, their wedding planning binder set out in front of me.

“So, you two said that you first met when you were teenagers at Pebble Beach, right?” I asked them.

“Yes, that’s right,” Eliza replied..

She seemed prepared to explain how they had not ended up together back then, but there was no need for such explanations. All that mattered was that they were together now.

“Well, I was thinking that we could book a stretch of Pebble Beach for the wedding.” I turned the page in the binder to show them a brochure on doing so. “They do it all the time, so it should be no problem.”

Eliza’s face lit up at the idea, and Nikolas embraced her.

“We love that idea,” Nikolas said.

“Fantastic. I’ll crunch the numbers on that and make the reservation-”

“This won’t be too expensive, will it?” Eliza asked, almost timidly.

I smiled.

“Remember, I’m handling all the expenses,” I told her.

“I know. I just don’t want you or the company to incur too much debt on our behalf.”

My heart warmed at her remark.

“Don’t worry. Ever After Weddings can handle everything just fine.”

Nikolas gave Eliza a k*ss on the cheek.

“If Crystal tells us not to worry, we should not worry,” he said.

I sat a little straight at his vote of confidence.

“Now,” I said, “this is going to be a simple but elegant wedding, as you requested, but I figured that that didn’t mean that we couldn’t play around at bit with things like the color scheme. I was thinking that red and gold would go very well with your relationship and your personalities.”

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Chapter 43

“What about the flowers?” Eliza asked.

“I think that red and yellow roses would be wonderful choices for your bouquet. You know, red roses represent true love, and yellow roses represent friendship. I think that the combination represents your relationship perfectly.

Eliza and Nikolas looked at each other lovingly before stealing another k*ss. Being surrounded by so much love made my heart ache for Andrew, but somehow, knowing that I was driving back to him that night made me

content.

“Let’s move on to the dress-”

I stopped as something abruptly pounded on the front door. Donner growled and barked from his place in the living room. I glanced at Eliza.

“Were you expecting someone?” I asked nervously.

Eliza shook her head.

“No. Let me go see who that is.”

“I’ll go with you,” Nikolas said.

Not sure what else to do, I followed the elderly couple to the front door. I watched as Eliza peeked out the peephole. She glanced back at Nikolas, then slowly unlocked and unlatched the front door to reveal Pete and another man with a striking familial resemblance to him.

“We’re here to speak to our father,” Pete said gruffly.

“Privately,” the second man added.

Nikolas walked up behind Eliza, but she would not move to let him through. I barely kept Donner back as the dog growled and paced behind us.

“I think you can speak to him right here,” Eliza said defiantly.

“Yeah,” I added, stepping up behind Nikolas. “Anything that you have to say to Nikolas, you can say in front of Eliza and me.”

Donner barked, as though wanting to get his objections in. I patted him on the head but never took my eyes off Pete and the second man. The intruders

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Chapter 38

glanced at Donner but did not seem too disturbed by him.

“We will talk to him outside,” the second man said.

“No, Chuck, it’s all right. We’ll talk to him here,” Pete said.

Chuck huffed. Obviously, he was not the brains of the operation.

“Father, we are here because you need to enter a conservatorship,” Pete continued. “You’re obviously not in your right mind. You need someone to make decisions for you.”

I gawked. Yes, Nikolas was old, and he did have some health issues, but he was certainly of sound mind. He didn’t have Alzheimer’s or dementia.

“Son, I don’t think-”

“No, you don’t, and that’s why you need us,” Pete said, “why you need this. Now, we can either take care of this among ourselves and make me your conservator quietly, or we can take this to court and make a huge deal out of it. Which would you prefer?”

“I would rather-”

“Remember, if it gets out that we even take you to court over you needing a conservatorship, it could ruin your business,” Pete continued. “It won’t matter who wins the case. No one will want to take the risk of an unstable man handling their dresses.”

That was all I needed to hear.

I slid out my phone and quickly dialed Andrew on video chat.

“Hey, lady, what are you doing?” Chuck asked just as Andrew answered.

“Crystal? Is something wrong?” Andrew said.

“Andrew, I’m with Eliza and Nikolas at Eliza’s house, and Nikola*’s sons are here,” I said, trying to watch both Andrew on the screen and Pete and Chuck at the door simultaneously. “They’re threatening Nikolas, trying to make him enter a conservatorship. They’re telling him that they’ll take him to court and that it’ll ruin his business if he doesn’t.”

“Get off the phone, lady. Now!” Chuck growled.

SEND GIFT D GIFT

10.49 Tur 2 Jan

Chapter 41

At the sound of Chuck’s voice, a dark expression crossed Andrew’s face.

“Crystal, lift the phone up so that I can see Nikola*’s sons,” he commanded.

I obeyed, adjusting the screen until he could view them both at once.

‘Gentlemen-if I can call you that-never speak that way to a woman in my presence again.” Andrew said, his voice oozing authority.

“And who are you to order us around?” Chuck asked.

“I am the Alpha King.” Andrew replied, “and you have been harassing dear friends of mine. So, here is how things are going to go. Either you two are going to back off and leave Nikolas Vanderbilt alone, or I am going to bring up charges of elder abuse against the both of you.”

Pete and Chuck went pale.