Chapter 3 - What the Guests Heard
For a moment, nobody moved.
Even Rebecca seemed stunned by what her mother had said.
Patricia recovered first.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that.
Children repeat things.”
Luke gave a short, humorless laugh.
“She wrote them down.”
I carried Emily into the chapel.
Rebecca followed.
“Daniel, stop.”
The organist lifted her hands from the keys.
Every conversation faded.
My aunt stood halfway out of her seat.
“What happened?”
I walked to the front.
Father Martin stepped toward me, concern replacing his ceremonial smile.
“Daniel?”
“I need to say something.”
Rebecca caught up beside the first pew.
“We are having a private disagreement.”
“No,” I said.
“You arranged to remove my daughter from her home without my permission.”
Someone gasped.
Rebecca’s father rose.
“That’s enough.”
Luke blocked the aisle before he reached me.
I held up the note.
“This was given to Emily today.
It says I agreed to send her away.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“He’s grieving.
He hasn’t been himself since Hannah died.”
Hannah.
My wife’s name in Rebecca’s mouth made my stomach turn.
Father Martin looked at her.
“Did you write the note?”
“It was meant to prepare her for a transition.”
“Did her father agree?”
Rebecca’s silence answered.
I took the ring box from my pocket and placed it on the nearest pew.
“The wedding is canceled.”
A chair scraped.
Patricia started toward us.
“You are humiliating my daughter.”
I looked down at Emily.
Her face was buried against my jacket.
“Then she knows a fraction of how mine feels.”
Father Martin asked everyone to remain seated while he led us into the small parish office.
Luke called the police.
Carol waited outside with the folder.
Rebecca stood in the hallway, whispering into her phone.
Inside the office, Emily finally let me put her down.
She sat beside me, holding two of my fingers.
“Are you mad because I ruined it?”
I could barely speak.
“You didn’t ruin anything.”
“But everybody came.”
“I would send every person in that room home a thousand times before I sent you away.”
She leaned against me.
May you like
Then she whispered something that changed the day again.
“Can we get Mommy’s box before Rebecca throws that away too?”
