Free Wedding Duress (Events By Design Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) by Ally Gray Page B

sending the party into another fit of loud and inappropriate laughter. “I liked to have never put two and two together that this whole thing was pretty much a plot between Diana and her mom, but by the time I figured that out, I was so far in with those two it was all a done deal. There was no way out. I kind of hoped that my bad reputation and my cheating would get them off my back, but nope. Not when they smelled the dollar signs of a pro football signing bonus.”
    “But this still doesn’t explain why she set you up?” Jeremiah asked. “If Diana was already marrying Ben, why do all those mean things? And why did she need to have you arrested? And I have to know… did Diana really let her cut off all her hair?”
    “Oh no, Mom did that exactly the way she’d described me doing it to the cops. She literally drugged my sister and chopped it all off. She even saved it in a plastic bag. She killed that poor hairdresser because he must have put two and two together. I heard yelling coming from Diana’s room early that morning. It woke me up, and I couldn’t place the man’s voice until after the cops came.” Stacy overlooked the sudden demotion that Sandrique—god rest his soul—had just received by being called a “hairdresser.” Everyone else at the table shuddered at the craziness of it all. “But the truth is, you’re looking at two different plots my mom had going. She had to get me out of the way because Ben had been a little too glad to see me during the months leading up to the wedding, and I have to admit, I didn’t exactly stay away from him. It was nice to get to see him and talk to him again, even if it was only as his future sister-in-law. This whole scenario today is exactly what my mother was afraid of happening! But the little pranks of hers are a whole different story… Mom is broke.”
    All eyes turned to Brianna as they waited, open-mouthed, for her to finish. The girl nodded.
    “It’s sad, but Daddy didn’t leave us with much. He died only about a year after they divorced, not that his being alive would have helped Mom any. He’d made sure Diana and I had money for college, and anything left over would provide a little bit of money for a nice, modest wedding, but that’s it. Mom didn’t get a penny, of course, and there isn’t much left in our trusts. Mom thought screwing up the wedding and pinning it on you guys would be a nice way to get a big tabloidy wedding, then not have to pay for it after she threatened to sue you for incompetence.”
    “So how did you end up looking like you’d been thrown in the trunk of a car?” Jeremiah asked, turning to Heaven. “I haven’t seen a body that filthy and wearing chains since the last time they hauled a man out of the swamp at my… uh, never mind.”
    “Yup, she caught me,” she said, with a sideways glance at Jeremiah, “I rounded the corner of the church carrying some folding chairs for the reception, and she clocked me in the head with a candle stick. I woke up under the front porch. It took me a while to figure out where I was, and that I still had time to try to stop it if I could just get to Ben.”
    “Zat beetch!” the chef yelled, lifting his head off his folded arms long enough to voice his anger before dropping it back down again.
    “So the stuff she pulled was to swindle us out of some money while locking you up and keeping you away from Ben? Wow, she’s good.”
    “You don’t know the half of it. Try living with her while you’re going through your awkward teenage years, hearing all about how pretty your sister is and how successful she’s going to be. You’ve dealt with her for a few months… I served twenty years.”
    They clinked their final round of shots in a toast to a day that was finally and mercifully over, threw back the warm liquor that was starting to taste better and better as the night wore on, then paid their tab and made their way out to the waiting limo. At least the limo driver would get his