Chapter 5: Two Hundred People Waiting
The priest met me at the edge of the altar.
He was a quiet man, older, with the kind of face that had absorbed a great deal of human difficulty without losing its steadiness.
"There won't be a ceremony today," I said.
He nodded once, as if this were not the first time.
"Do you want me to address the guests?"
"I'll do it."
I walked to the front of the chapel.
Two hundred faces turned toward me.
Friends.
Colleagues.
Rebecca's extended family filling the right-hand pews.
My own mother in the third row on the left, her hands folded in her lap, watching me with an expression I couldn't read yet.
"I want to thank everyone for being here today," I said.
"I'm sorry to tell you that the wedding won't be taking place.
There's no emergency.
Everyone is safe.
I ask that you please give us some privacy as we work through what needs to be worked through."
Murmuring.
A few people stood.
Rebecca's aunt said something sharp to the woman beside her.
My mother didn't move.
I walked back down the aisle and found Aunt Carol near the side door with Emily, who was holding a small bouquet of white flowers she had picked up somewhere and was methodically pulling the petals off one by one.
She looked up when she saw me.
"Are we leaving?"
"Yes."
"Is the wedding cancelled?"
I crouched down.
"Yes."
She considered this.
"Because of the note?"
"Partly."
Emily looked at the half-demolished bouquet in her hands.
"I didn't want to go to that school."
"I know."
"Rebecca said it was already decided."
"It wasn't."
"She said you knew."
"I didn't know." I took her hands in mine.
The remaining petals scattered.
"I want you to hear this clearly.
You are not going anywhere.
You are staying with me.
No one decided anything without you."
Emily looked at me for a long moment with those serious dark eyes.
Then she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against my shoulder.
I held her there while the chapel emptied around us.
My mother appeared at my side.
She didn't say anything for a while.
She put one hand on my back and stood there while the last of the guests filed out into the cold afternoon light.
"How long did you know?" I asked her.
"I didn't know," she said.
"But I wondered."
"Why didn't you say something?"
She was quiet for a moment.
"Because you seemed happy.
And I wasn't certain.
And I told myself I was wrong." Her hand pressed slightly harder against my back.
"I should have said something.
I'm sorry."
"She had already spoken to a solicitor," I said.
"She was going to petition to take Emily."
My mother's breath came out slowly.
"Then you stopped it in time," she said.
Across the chapel, Rebecca and her mother were speaking in low, urgent voices near the vestibule door.
Rebecca's mother looked over once.
Her expression was not guilt.
May you like
It was strategy.
Whatever came next, they were already planning it.
