Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
The dress was flipped at the hem where Jetta had moved it to remove Tanya’s shoes and Zane caught the flash of the deep purple fabric.
It hit him like a tidal wave. “Out. All of you. I need these clothes off her.”
He was lifting her in his arms and turning her so he could reach the back of her dress before the room was fully cleared.
“You want help? There are a hundred of those pearl buttons back there. It took us forever to get her dressed,” Jetta said.
“Yes. Please,” he choked out.
Jetta rushed over and together they began to undo the buttons. She was right. There had to be a hundred of them.
“Forget it. I’ll shred it.”
“If it’s not the dress… she loves this dress…”
“It can be fixed if it’s not the dress, but Jetta, it is the fucking dress.”
“One more button. Here. Try now.”
Enough were undone that he could get it over her head. And he did. He threw it across the room and saw her skin looked mottled underneath. He stripped her of her undergarments, too, just in case. And they were beautiful undergarments, too, for their wedding night.
Pain seized his chest.
“In case I’m contaminated too, I’m stripping now so unless you wanna see that…” Zane started, while getting her under the covers, pulling the top coverlet back and throwing it off the bed in case it was contaminated. Orvand had crafted his tuxedo, Ollie’s too.
“I’m gone,” Jetta held her hands up.
“Tell them to have Orvand arrested.”
“You think it’s the dress?” Jetta asked.
Zane threw his jacket across the room, lifted the blanket and then scanned her naked body with his device.
“Her levels have already dropped 5%. Definitely.”
“Oh, thank God.” Jetta grabbed the dress and took it out of the room.
Good. The fucking thing.
He frantically finished stripping, threw his clothing into the bathroom and shut the door and then climbed in bed with her and scanned her again. She still looked like death, though color was returning in her lips at least. He scanned her again. Down another 3%.
It was the fucking dress.
Lunaris may or may not have had a part in it. She’d done Tanya’s hair. Zane carefully removed the flowers and jewels anyway.
He pulled her closer. Her body began to tremble.
He felt a wave of relief swim through his veins. He called his father.
“Tell Ollie she’s going to be okay.”
CHAPTER 37
TANYA
I woke up naked in our hotel room under the blankets with Zane and my body was trembling just like that time I first came out of my allergic reaction. But harder. Way harder.
“Hi,” I said, wrapped up in his arms.
“Hi,” he replied with a relief in his voice and on his face that was startling. “I almost lost you. Again.”
“What happened?”
“You fainted at the waterfalls, shortcake. Your dress was contaminated. That purple lining? Must have been soaked in razzleberry extract.”
“Orvand?”
“Orvand.”
I blinked and my mind worked through all my dealings with him. He’d been to the house twice, once to bring the first two dresses he made me, which were beautiful, and one more time to bring the third. He seemed nice. He didn’t seem like he’d try to kill me.
“He complained to me three times when he brought me those dresses that Treya was treating him like a lap dog because she told him she was relaunching his career, that as wife of the ambassador of the capital region, she’d be able to make or break him as a designer as the fashion trends ramped up again.”
He rolled his eyes. “He’s being arrested.”
“It was the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen. I felt like a princess in it.”
“You were the most beautiful bride there ever was in it, until it tried to kill you. That dress will be burnt,” he snapped.
“So, a Jessica Rabbit dress got me sent to outer space. And the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen almost killed me.”
“What’s a Jessica Rabbit dress?”
“I’ll show you the movie when we get home,” I snuggled in. “So sleepy.”
“Sleep, baby.” He turned out the light and opened the retractable ceiling.
Just then, the three-bulb moonflower plant on the bedside table bloomed and gems fell to the floor. Zane crawled out of bed to get them. He turned the light on and showed me three red gems, one of them perfectly heart-shaped.
“Oh wow, Zane. That’s so pretty. Oh. So sleepy.”
“I’ll hold you, Tanya.”
My eyes drifted shut, hearing him add, “I’ll hold you forever.”
***
Orvand claimed that Treya blackmailed him. There was all sorts of razzleberry extract dye in the lining of my dress. They were both arrested. I felt bad for Spar and those two baby girls.
Lunaris was interviewed by the police and we were told she was 100% innocent. There was no doubt in my mind. She was a lot like me, and I had the feeling we’d become very close friends.