Chapter 71

The next night, we kicked off the rehearsal over dinner. Ashton sent the staff away at my insistence. Then, instead of sitting across from me as usual, he slid into the seat beside mine, like we were already at his grandfather’s party playing the happy couple. He pointed out where people would be sitting, who I needed to watch, which uncle faked being vegetarian to impress his green-juice-obsessed wife but secretly smashed steaks like a cave troll, and which one nearly blew up a construction site because—get this—he thought a pile of dynamite looked ‘fun’. Also, there was a cousin who might come for my throat because Ashton had apparently gotten her arrested for reckless driving. It was the most he’d talked to me since this whole thing started. And even though his tone was all dry and matter-of-fact, the stuff he said was… weirdly funny. I found myself loosening up and even occasionally cracking a laugh. The rehearsal continued after dinner. By then, I’d accepted my fate. It was just h