Secret Bridesmaid
Victoria Pinder
Secret Bridesmaid
Copyright©2019
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemble to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
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Published in the United States of America.
Copyright © 2019 Victoria Pinder Love in a Book
All rights reserved.
This book is dedicated to my friend Sandi H. She’s a paranormal young adult author who is trying super hard for years to publish. Her dedication makes me want to help her because she’s A: awesome. B: sweet. C: a good, old school author who writes by hand before she types.
Contents
The House of Morgan Family Tree
Join Victoria Pinder
Series Information
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Start Reading the House of Morgan Now
Also by Victoria Pinder
About the Author
The House of Morgan Family Tree
Mitch Morgan married Isabelle Marshall
Their children: Peter, Victoria, John, Luke, Elizabeth, Matthew
Mitch Morgan had an affair with Fiona Dupree
Their children: Mitch, Damien, Galen, Axel, Catherine (also called Jess)
Mitch Morgan had an affair with Maria in Italy and they had five children, Bartolomeo, Giorgio, Anthony, Aurelia and Lorenzo.
Peter married Belle Jordan in Secret Bet.
No children.
Victoria married Colt Collins in Secret Baby
Their children: Clara.
John married Alice Collins in Secret Crush
They have one child, unnamed.
Luke is engaged to Caro Soliz in Secret Wish
No children. Luke and Caro get married in Secret Romeo
Elizabeth married Rafe Soliz in Secret Dad
Their children: Brandon.
Matthew is currently not married.
Mitch Morgan married Tess Taylor in Secret Heir
No children.
Damien married Serenity Hanscom in Secret Tryst Expecting Twins.
Galen marries Natalie Parker in Secret Date
Axel is in love with Emily Wilson in Secret Bridesmaid.
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Catherine Morgan aka Jess Taylor is currently single.
Bartolomeo will find his true love in Secret Admirer (April 2019.)
Giorgio marries Kiwi Washington in Secret Match.
Anthony is in love with Jennifer Gonzales but my find true love later.
Aurelia is currently missing and presumed dead.
Lorenzo is currently not married.
Soliz Family served the Morgans for 30 years.
Pilar and Samuel re-connected after 25 years apart in Secret Romeo. Pilar and Samuel had two children, Rafe and Caro. Samuel had a third child Valentina during his years of amnesia.
Valentina is currently single.
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Please check out the entire House of Morgan Series and get caught up.
The House of Morgan
Secret Crush
Secret Baby
Secret Bet
Secret Wish
Secret Dad
Secret Heir
Secret Tryst
Secret Date
Secret Romeo
Secret Caress
Secret Match
Secret Bridesmaid
Secret Admirer
The House of Morgan Boxed Set 1-3
The House of Morgan Boxed Set 4-6
Emily Wilson checked her watch and sipped her latte as she rode the elevator up to the twentieth floor of her office building. Only three? An Indigo Five song played in her head. Thanks to her boss, she had seats next to the stage and she’d get to see her idol, Axel Morgan, up close and personal tonight at his concert. Tonight, she’d pretend Axel was singing just to her.
Life was great.
She stepped off of the elevator in a happy mood, her hips swinging to the tune that she’d sing at the top of her lungs during the show--she knew every word.
Bam!
Warm latte spilled down the front of her silky white blouse.
The young attorney Henry Jones mumbled, “Sorry,” but continued to rush down the hall.
“No problem.” Emily shook her head. Seriously?
She’d planned on wearing the white lace undershirt to the concert, so she could go directly there after work and avoid traffic, but now she’d look like a disaster as that was soaked too. She wiped the mess with a napkin hastily dug from her bag and headed toward her office, right next to the boss and senior attorney of the firm, Roy Bentley.
Luckily Mr. Bentley left work at reasonable hours to go home to his family, so she’d have no problem leaving a little early for the concert.
As Emily opened her office door, she saw her boss standing next to her desk with an unfamilar dark-haired woman, waiting for her.
She tossed her ruined cup and napkin in the trash.
The stained shirt had to be changed--she couldn't wear this to hear her idol. She swallowed and brought her focus back to business. “Hello.”
Her boss didn’t introduce the probable client. Instead, he pulled two chairs close to her desk and gestured for her to take her customary seat behind it, while they also sat. “Your sister is Linsey Wilson?”
Oh. Her sister was a movie star sister, and they didn't speak much. Normally no one thought they were related in any way. Emily brushed her hair behind her ear and pulled out her reading glasses from the top drawer. “Yeah, why?”
The female client with no name had a slight scar on her face. Emily vaguely recognized her from the news when the woman said, “She’s Jennifer Gonzales’ maid of honor for the upcoming wedding.”
Gonzales. This woman. The puzzle in her mind began to fit together. Emily stilled as she realized that the client was Belle Morgan, Peter Morgan’s first wife and Axel Morgan’s ex sister-in-law. The House of Morgan were billionaires in the spotlight, brighter than even movie stars these days. She nodded and folded her hands in front of her ruined blouse. “I see. What does that have to do with me? Do you want my sister
’s autographs or something?”
Mr. Bentley straightened and glared down his nose in the way he looked at every employee that he expected to fall in line as he said, “Our firm has been hired to find out if Jennifer Gonzales has done anything to our client that we don’t already know so we can include it in the civil suit, possibly in time to stop Jennifer and Peter's wedding.”
Right. The House of Morgan. Her idol, Axel Morgan, would never fulfill his duties as her fantasy lover if she sued his family. What she’d read about the House of Morgan was that they didn’t sue each other, like it was their family motto. She pivoted her chair to face the woman breaking that rule.
“Belle Morgan.” The woman had a direct, intelligent stare as she offered her hand to shake. “Hi.”
“Emily Wilson.” Emily wondered why Belle was going against the Morgan policy. “I’m sorry about your ex-husband.”
Belle’s eyes glistened but she settled back in her seat. “It’s okay. I need your help though.”
Emily rested her forearms on her desk, prepared to listen fairly. Axel didn’t know she existed anyhow and through the Bentley law firm, she helped people like Belle who needed justice. From what she’d read in the entertainment articles, probably put out by Jennifer’s publicists, Belle was the interloper in true love. Linsey had taught her that what she read in magazines and online wasn’t always reality. “How can I help? I’m not even invited to the wedding.”
Belle pulled her chair forward like she was running a boardroom. “We’ve done better than an invite.”
Roy nodded his agreement.
“What?” She blinked at her boss--what did that mean? Emily was his personal assistant, which was a fancy name for secretary, and didn't run in the rich or famous crowd.
Belle took a deep breath and then said, “A friend of mine talked to your sister and helped get you into Jennifer’s wedding party as a replacement bridesmaid.”
Emily deflated. This meant seeing her sister. The last time they’d spoken, Emily had refused the job offer to follow Linsey around as personal slave to her sister’s bright star. Two years ago, now. Emily fought the impulse to chew nervously on her lip and rolled her chair back from the desk, wishing she could hide the awful stain on her shirt. “But I don’t know the bride. Why would she accept a total stranger into her wedding?”
Belle kept her gaze steady as her nose lifted in the air, her tone holding a hint of judgment. “Because Jennifer needs ten bridesmaids and it seems she’s short on female friends. Your sister is one of them. You don’t know any of the Morgans, as far as Jennifer knows.”
Technically, Belle wasn’t a Morgan anymore. The man on stage tonight was though. Goosebumps grew on her arms as she thought about Axel. “Linsey and I are very different.”
Belle scooted closer. “But she’s still your sister.”
No. Emily couldn’t let the conversation head toward her sister and her. She ignored the headache Linsey usually caused and asked, “What do you want me to do exactly?”
“We have an investigator assigned to help you,” Roy said. “You don’t have to do anything other than listen for something Jennifer might have done to possibly infringe on my client’s rights.”
An investigator. Her being a spy in the wedding party. This seemed surreal. She reached for her coffee, but she had no cup so her hand awkwardly fell on the desk. “And what is the case?”
Belle and her boss shared a look and then Belle said, “I’m suing Jennifer for emotional distress among other things. She’s about to give birth to what should have been my son.”
Emily lowered her head and hoped no one noticed the blush on her cheeks. The newspapers had said that Jennifer and Peter had an affair.
Peter had gone behind Belle’s back to father this child, because his divorce hadn't been final with Belle. Emily reminded herself not to believe her social media gossip feeds as she said, “I read about that in the news.”
Belle, head high, folded her hands over her knee. “Here is what I can’t prove…”
“I’m all ears.” Emily perked up. If Jennifer’s publicist was like her sister’s, then the “facts” she read might not be reality at all--she was eager to find out the truth.
Belle sipped a bottle of water with the law firm logo that they handed out to clients. Roy must have given it to her before Emily arrived. “This is all confidential. Peter only made one donation to the clinic,” Belle said. “I was there. We were to return to inseminate me when my body was ready.”
Donation. Belle had been there. Yeah. The news reports were wrong. Emily leaned forward like she was waiting for the next episode of her favorite TV program. “And?”
Belle’s left eye twitched and she gulped a large drink of her water. “The clinic messed up and inseminated Natalie.”
“Oh, no.” Emily honestly didn’t follow the gossip magazines, but in the few she’d read no one named Natalie had ever been mentioned. She made a mental note to look her up later.
Belle looked at her attorney and then back at Emily. “I don’t think there was enough sperm left for Jennifer to get pregnant at the clinic.”
And she thought Jennifer might admit this to a random stranger? Emily’s throat was parched. She wanted another coffee but she rubbed the bridge of her nose, knowing it would have to wait. “So we’re looking for evidence the child is not Peter Morgan’s?”
Belle jumped in her seat like she’d just heard a ping and said, “Exactly.”
“Okay.” Emily could research the facility and crunch out the possibilities of other male donors; finding an expert witness would be easy on infertility treatment and how much sperm is collected in one sample. “Surely there are tests Peter would have demanded.”
Belle gave her a curt nod. “Jennifer refuses most as she won’t harm her baby in any way.”
Gathering this information didn’t require her being the biggest bridesmaid in the swarm of size four is the new six crowd her sister befriended.
She started to state her case when Roy held up a finger. “One more thing--”
Belle interrupted her boss to say, “You have to be around Jennifer in order to discover anything illegal Jennifer might have done to me. You will report it immediately.”
Illegal? As in a crime? Emily bit her lip and didn’t ask. Hopefully Linsey wouldn’t be involved, or she couldn’t face her mother. “Who is this investigator I’m working with?”
Her boss handed her a business card of a company she’d used for him countless times as he said, “Delta Force. His name is Diesel Draken.”
“His name is Diesel like fuel?” Her contact at the company had always been a woman, and she’d never thought she’d work with any of them directly.
They usually hired this firm when one of the clients might be in danger. Roy stood suddenly and said, “I’ll bring him in.”
Her boss opened Emily's office door and a large man the size of a full back on a football team, but handsome enough to appear in an action flick opposite her sister, offered his hand to shake, his thick wedding band prominant. “Nice to meet you, Emily Wilson.”
A thought occurred that on this venture she might actually see her longtime childhood crush in the living flesh and not just from the concert stage. “You, as well. How do we work together?”
He pulled a chair in from the hall as easy as a wooden toy and sat near the door. “It’s simple really. You’ll do all the wedding stuff and you’re my ticket into the house to find any private incriminating evidence on Jennifer. In return, you earn that reward.”
Okay, so his team would do most of the work while she had to deal with Jennifer and Linsey. She pasted a smile on her face and hoped no one could read her mind. Her sister was a reason not to go, at all. She swallowed back that information and turned her attention to her boss. “I don’t ever do field work. I send the contracts for others. What do I earn?”
“The bonus.” Diesel’s brows rose in confusion, as if he expected for her to already know this Information.
There was a reward? Emily stared at Roy and asked more clearly, “How much is this bonus?”
Roy took out his phone and sent her a work-for-hire contract she’d drawn up for him a while back in a text. She read the beginning, recognizing her work, as Roy said, “It depends on what you find. It’s all in the contract.”
She held up a finger as she flipped to the next page on her own phone. “Let me read…” Nothing jumped out at her until the third page with the tier of monetary amounts, which she'd left blank for him to fill in for each individual case. She almost dropped her phone because her hand shook. “I can earn up to a hundred thousand?”
Belle nodded. “That’s if you find undeniable proof the baby isn’t Peter’s.”
“I’m on it.” For the first time since college graduation, Emily’s future offered happiness that didn’t feel forced. A weight lifted off her shoulders that had been there for years. That kind of money would help her pay off her debts and have a down payment for a home.
Diesel saw her relieved reaction. “Why don’t you ask your sister to help you with your student loans?”
Her body trembled, and she crossed her arms, the damp from the coffee spill clammy against her skin. “How do you know about that?”
Secret Bridesmaid Page 1
