Chapter 4: Two Women and One Lie
Melissa was still in the courtyard.
Most of the guests had drifted toward the parking area, speaking in low voices, some still holding their phones.
A few of Ryan's friends stood near the arbor looking at the ground.
The officiant had gone.
The chairs sat empty in their neat rows under the afternoon sun.
Melissa stood near the fountain with Daniel.
She had given him her phone to hold, and he was focused on the screen, unaware of everything around him.
She looked up when Amanda approached.
Neither woman spoke for a moment.
"I didn't come here to hurt you," Melissa said finally.
"I know," Amanda said.
"I came because he told me two weeks ago that he had ended it.
That he was coming back." She looked down at Daniel.
"I believed him.
I drove four hours because I believed him."
Amanda sat down on the edge of the fountain.
It was an odd thing to do in a wedding dress.
She did it anyway.
"How did you find out about the wedding?"
"His cousin.
She felt guilty.
She sent me the invitation." Melissa's mouth tightened.
"I sat with it for ten days.
I kept thinking — he wouldn't.
Not actually." She paused.
"Then I got in the car."
Sophie had stopped a few feet back.
She was watching Melissa carefully.
"Were you here last night?" Sophie asked.
Melissa looked at her.
"Yes."
"Did he ask you to come?"
A pause.
"He called me Thursday.
Said he needed to see me before — before he made a final decision.
That's what he said.
A final decision." Her voice was flat with the memory of it.
"I drove up.
We talked for two hours in that building over there.
He told me he still loved me.
That the wedding was a mistake.
That he was going to call it off in the morning."
Amanda closed her eyes for one second.
Then opened them.
"He didn't call it off," she said.
"No," Melissa said.
"He didn't."
The fountain made a small, steady sound behind them.
"He was going to marry you today," Melissa continued, "and come back to me next week with some story.
I don't know what story.
I stopped trying to guess his stories a long time ago."
"Then why did you stay with him?" Sophie asked.
Not unkindly.
Genuinely.
Melissa looked at Daniel.
"Because of him.
And because I kept thinking the next version of Ryan would be better than the last one." She paused.
"He never was."
Amanda looked at the marriage certificate Melissa still held loosely in one hand.
"Can I see that?"
Melissa handed it over without hesitation.
Amanda read it carefully.
The names.
The date.
Seven years ago.
A courthouse in a small town in Pennsylvania.
"He told me he'd been married once," Amanda said.
"Briefly.
That it ended badly and she moved away."
"I didn't move away," Melissa said.
"I live forty minutes from your house."
Sophie made a sound that wasn't quite a word.
"He told me about you," Melissa added.
"He said you were temporary.
That you were convenient while he sorted things out." She looked at Amanda directly.
"I'm sorry.
You deserved to know that."
Amanda folded the certificate carefully and held it out.
Melissa shook her head.
"Keep it.
You may need it."
"For what?"
"I don't know yet.
But Ryan doesn't do anything without a reason.
He didn't plan this wedding because he loved you." Melissa picked up Daniel's hand.
"He planned it because of something else.
I just don't know what."
Amanda looked up.
Before she could respond, a man she didn't recognize came across the courtyard toward them.
He was older, in a dark suit, and he was moving with purpose.
He stopped in front of Amanda.
"Ms.
Carter?" He held out a business card.
"My name is Gerald Foss.
I'm an attorney.
May you like
I was a guest today — a colleague of Ryan's." He paused.
"I think there's something you need to know about why Ryan wanted this wedding to happen before the end of the month."
