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Chapter 4

Carly woke up on the sofa the next morning with her head pounding. She looked toward the clock and saw most of the morning passed her by. She headed to the bathroom and took a long hot shower. The wedding was today and there were still plans to be taken care of.

She thought back to last nights party, she groaned when she found she couldn't remember much after the second drink. She dressed in a simple pair of jeans and black top before leaving the house. She had her dress for the wedding at the Metro Court, there were still a few more hours before she had to get ready fro Jason's wedding.

Before anything else she went to Sonny's to see the boys. She walked inside and found Sonny pacing the living room. "What's up?" she knew the look across his face; it wasn't going to be good whatever he said.

Sonny looked at Carly and thought it over and decided she had a right to know after the trouble she went through. "It's Manny, Jason and I are worried he might try something at the wedding. Ever since Alexis got him off, it's like a waiting for a bomb to blow."

Carly sighed. "He can't ruin the wedding, that would destroy Jason. What are you going to do?"

"Security is all over the place and I have someone on Manny." Sonny answered.

Carly had lunch with the boys then rushed over to the church. The flowers were all in place, the priest was standing by. There was nothing left to do but wait for vow time.

"It's perfect."

Carly turned around to see Sam, but the bride didn't look happy. "Why the sour look?"

"I can't believe you used last night to finally be your old Carly self about this wedding." Sam crossed her arms, fire in her eyes, she was angry.

Carly mentally groaned, she couldn't remember last night but she had to admit part of her was glad to see Sam so upset. "What are you talking about?"

"Too damn drunk to remember? Your comment about me and Sonny, everyone started talking and it didn't help Jason ran off to take you home. He missed the rest of the party." Sam tightly explained.

"Back off, the wedding is still happening that's all that matters. Relax and get ready." Carly didn't want to fight with Sam because it was just pointless, and her head still hurt, Sam's annoying voice was the last thing she wanted to hear.

"It's not that easy. You were wrong Carly and I'm sick of it. Being Jason's friend doesn't give you the right---"

"What's going on?"

Carly looked up as Jason walked toward them. "Nothing. Just going over the final touches."

"I'm going to go get ready; it's bad luck to see me before the wedding." Sam said to the husband to be before leaving the room.

"I was as nice as I could be, I swear." Carly said and finally met his eyes, something felt different in the way he looked at her, she hated feelings she couldn't understand. "Um…I need a little help, can you fill in the blanks? What happened last night?"

Jason couldn't fight back the smile that played across his lips. "You don't remember?"

"No, this will teach me to stay away from the bar. Sam seemed really upset, what did I do now?" Carly asked.

"Don't worry about it, Sam will be fine."

Carly cringed. "Did I do or say something else I should know about?"

Jason just looked at her for a moment before softly saying. "No."

"Alight. Now that last night is cleared up it's time for you to go get ready." Carly arranged for everyone to get ready at the hotel then a driver would bring them over to the church.

Carly wore a long black dress, she stuck with the simple color because it fit, and she was in mourning. She almost wanted to walk Jason down the aisle since she was the one giving him away.

She met back up with Jason at the church as he waited in one of the rooms for starting time. "Hey, a tux really suites you." She said looking him over, no man ever looked better in her eyes.

"Thanks, so do you, look nice."

"You always say that."

"And I always mean it."

She smiled something about the way he looked at her reminded Carly of last night. She stared into his sky blue eyes as it all came back to her. "I kissed you."

Jason had hoped she wouldn't remember but he was also glad she had. As much as he hated it he knew she'd end up hurt, they needed to talk about it. "Yeah."

Carly placed her hand over her forehead; she couldn't believe this was happening. She hoped it was all a bad dream but she knew she wasn't that lucky. "Why didn't you say something when I asked before?"

"I didn't think we needed to have this conversation."

"No, you didn't want to tell me how much of a fool I was last night." As the whole night replayed in her mind, she did feel like a big fool. "I didn't mean it." She said now as she stood straight to seem as confident as she could. "Everything I said was just all the drinking, I didn't mean it." She needed him to believe.

"Really?"

"Yup. I'm sorry for pulling you away from the party for something so unimportant. And I didn't mean to kiss you either, everything was just a big mess we can forget now." Carly rambled on as she looked around the room unable to look at him.

Jason knew when Carly was lying and she was lying now. It pained him to see her so hurt but he didn't know what to do to help. "Carly, it's ok."

"Yeah, it's behind us." Carly plastered a smile on her face before looking at him. "The wedding is going to start soon, everything looks so great." She stood in front of him. "Your tie needs fixing." She adjusted his tie and felt his heart beating beneath her hand in that moment tears rushed to her eyes. "I can't do this." She confessed.

Jason's voice was just as soft. "Do what?"

"This, all of it." Carly looked up into his eyes. "Jason I love you."

"I love you too."

"No Jason I'm in love with you, I never stopped. A day hasn't passed where you don't factor in. You're my dream. I don't know what's in your heart, maybe we're meant to never be together but I can't let you make a mistake. Sam isn't the woman for you." Carly explained. Part of her wondered if she had gone crazy to so something like this. The other part was relieved she finally had.

Before another word could be said the door opened and Sonny walked in. "We have a problem."

Carly turned away to dry her cheeks, Jason stepped into business mode. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Manny's been shot and the cops are on their way to arrest you."

"Of course." Carly supplied.

Sonny continued. "Our inside man give me the details, you don't have an alibi for the time of the shooting and the guy I had tailing Many didn't see anything before it was too late. You need to go Jason until I get this fixed. It won't be like last time, Manny is dead and they want to nail this on you."

"Go? Now?"

"There won't be a wedding either way. I'll take care of Sam, you get out of here. You can take the back exit and you remember the safe house we talked about in case something like this happened? Right? I'll go make sure everyone is in one spot, you get out of here." Sonny quickly explained before leaving.

Jason couldn't believe this was happening now of all days. He looked at Carly, he couldn't leave her in the state she was in to deal with Durant and all the drama that followed. He grabbed her hand. "Come on."

-

Isabelle A.