All's Fair in Love and Blood - Jennifer Peel Page 0,1

keep going,” he grumbled.

I hobbled the rest of the way down the aisle, thankful I couldn’t see my father or Kane. Despite not being able to see my father, I was sure he was sighing and shaking his head, not quite sure what to do with me as usual. Kane, on the other hand, was probably studying me, again. And I knew he would be beautiful while doing it. As far as I was concerned, it was perfectly fine for me to think about Kane like that since he would be my stepbrother for only a maximum of eighteen months. No wife had made it past three years, and that was a long time ago. My father’s marriage lengths had gotten shorter with each wife. So, Kane and I would never truly be family. Besides, Kane was a lot older than me—like seven years, which made him twenty-nine. And he was so out of my league. That was if I even had a league. I was more like a spectator. When I could see.

I took my place in the bridal party line, the last in line of seven bridesmaids. I desperately wanted to slip off the nude heels and SPANX and breathe. Breathing would be so nice. SPANX didn’t mess around. Eva had at least let me keep my glasses on until right after I’d slipped into the long blush chiffon dress that had way too many slits in it. I hardly recognized myself in the bridal suite’s floor-length mirror. Who knew I had such a womanly shape? Eva had even SPANXed my thighs. Which was too bad because they would have been clapping for me as I walked down the aisle and I could have used the encouragement.

When “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles began to play, I praised Jesus. It meant this was almost over. Lady Deathstrike, as I’d nicknamed Eva—the horrid wives all got comic book villain names—would be walking down the aisle any moment now, thinking she was truly the sun in my father’s life. Little did she know that his world revolved around his company, Armstrong Labs. Plasma was his lifeblood.

Would it be bad if I slipped out of these heels while I waited? I mean, it wasn’t like I was the maid of honor. That title went to Lady Deathstrike’s daughter, Koraline with a K, as she loves to say. She was every bit as beautiful as her mother and brother. They each had these mesmerizing golden-brown eyes and athletic builds. Eva was more fair than her children, who both had olive skin and dark hair. And they were all tall, like the perfect height for modeling. Koraline was a few years older than me, and thankfully, wouldn’t be living at Auggie’s while I was home from school for the summer. If only Auggie hadn’t wanted me to intern at Armstrong Labs this summer, I would have stayed at Samford and taken additional classes while I applied to medical schools. It was always awkward when there was a new wife at home. Inevitably, they wanted to put their mark on the place. The house had been everything from nautical themed to animal prints. Currently, we were still living with an Asian Zen style from the barely legal Barbie doll my father had married only last year. The interior decorators in Atlanta loved my father. Yet, I came home because I wanted to make my father proud, somehow, someway. And the only things I felt like I had to offer were my brains and my reluctant promise to forgo my dream, and instead, work for Armstrong Labs after I graduated from med school.

I made out a fuzzy vision of Eva, now standing next to my father. People in the audience could be heard whispering about what an attractive couple they made. My father certainly was dashing. Tall, with a thick head of brown hair. Okay, so I was almost certain he dyed it—no way he wasn’t graying at fifty-five. In addition to his good looks, he held himself with such an air of confidence. Something he’d forgotten to pass down to me, his only biological child.

The audience whisperings weren’t all flattering. All my ex-stepsiblings who were front row center were taking bets on how long this one would last and murmuring about how they hoped the food at the reception was worth the price of the gift they’d brought. My father not only collected ex-wives but their children as well. There were nine of