Chapter 1 - Ten Minutes Before Forever
“Daddy, please don’t marry her.
She already packed my suitcase.”
My seven-year-old daughter was hiding behind the chapel, clutching a piece of paper so tightly her knuckles had turned white.
Inside, two hundred people were waiting for my wedding.
Outside, Emily was waiting to find out whether I still wanted her.
I dropped to my knees.
“What suitcase, sweetheart?”
“The blue one.
Rebecca said I wouldn’t need my toys.”
One flower slipped from her hair and landed on the concrete.
I barely noticed.
She pressed the paper into my hand.
The message was short.
After the wedding, you will live somewhere better suited for children like you.
Do not upset your father.
He has already agreed.
I recognized the handwriting before I finished the first line.
Rebecca wrote her grocery lists with the same sharp little hooks.
Emily watched my face.
“Did you agree?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Her shoulders shook when I pulled her against me.
For two years, Rebecca had been patient, thoughtful, almost painfully careful around my daughter.
She remembered school projects.
She cut the crusts off sandwiches.
She said she understood that loving a widower meant loving the child his wife had left behind.
I had mistaken good preparation for kindness.
The chapel door opened.
Rebecca stepped outside in ivory lace, holding the bouquet we had chosen together.
“There you are.”
Then she saw Emily in my arms.
Her smile tightened.
“Darling, the priest is waiting.
Give her to Mrs. Cole.”
I stood.
“Where were you planning to send my daughter?”
Rebecca’s eyes dropped to the paper.
For half a second, she forgot to look happy.
“Not here,” she whispered.
“Answer me.”
“She’s confused.”
Emily pressed her face into my neck.
“I can read,” she said.
Rebecca glanced toward the doorway.
My brother Luke had appeared behind her.
“What’s going on?”
I handed him the note.
He read it once.
Then again.
Rebecca reached for my sleeve.
“Daniel, there are arrangements you don’t understand.”
“Then explain them.”
“The car is already here.”
Everything around me seemed to stop.
“What car?”
Before she could answer, Emily lifted her head.
“The gray one,” she whispered.
“The lady inside knows my name.”
Across the parking lot, a woman stepped out of a gray SUV.
May you like
She carried a folder.
And looped around her wrist was the handle of my daughter’s blue suitcase.
