Chapter 2 - THE WEDDING STOPS
Ethan did not ask Victoria another question until Lily was out of the room.
His sister took her downstairs to a private sitting room.
The venue's on-call nurse examined Lily's cheek and scalp.
No serious injury.
No concussion.
No skin broken.
A painful slap.
Tenderness where Victoria had pulled her hair.
Enough.
Ethan asked the nurse to document it.
Victoria heard him.
“Ethan.”
He turned.
The bridal suite was no longer private.
The wedding coordinator stood near the door.
Security had arrived.
Victoria's maid of honor was crying silently in the corner.
White petals covered the floor where Ethan's thrown bouquet had come apart.
Victoria pointed at them.
“You threw something at me too.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at the security supervisor.
“Put that in the report.”
Victoria stared at him.
He continued.
“I threw the bouquet after I saw her hit Lily. It wasn't necessary. Don't leave it out.”
That seemed to frighten Victoria more than a denial would have.
Ethan held up the pendant.
“Who is she?”
Victoria's eyes fixed on it.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“It belongs to my family.”
“You attacked my daughter over it.”
“I thought she had taken something else.”
“What?”
Victoria stopped.
Ethan noticed.
“What else?”
She looked toward the vanity.
There was a small ivory jewelry case beside the mirror.
Open.
Empty.
Ethan walked toward it.
Victoria moved.
Security moved too.
She stopped.
“There was an envelope.”
“What envelope?”
“Blue.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“And you decided Lily knew?”
“I saw the pendant in her basket.”
“So you grabbed her hair.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The simplicity of the answer made the room colder.
Ethan looked at the wedding coordinator.
“Cancel the ceremony.”
Victoria's eyes opened.
“Ethan.”
“Cancel it.”
“We have two hundred people downstairs.”
“I don't care.”
“My father—”
“I don't care.”
He looked at security.
“Lily doesn't come near Victoria again unless Lily asks and I'm present.”
The supervisor nodded.
Victoria whispered:
“You're ending our wedding over one—”
She stopped.
Good.
Even she heard what the sentence was about to become.
Ethan stepped closer.
“One what?”
Victoria looked down.
“Nothing.”
“Exactly.”
The coordinator left.
Within minutes, the music downstairs stopped.
Guests began receiving the blandest explanation possible:
The ceremony had been postponed because of a family emergency.
No details.
Ethan wanted Lily's face nowhere near social media.
Then the nurse returned.
“Your daughter is asking for you.”
He started toward the door.
Victoria spoke behind him.
“Her name was Claire.”
Ethan stopped.
He looked back.
“The woman?”
Victoria nodded toward the pendant.
“Claire Hayes.”
“Who was she?”
Victoria's expression tightened.
“My sister.”
Ethan looked at the tiny face again.
“You've never told me you had a sister named Claire.”
“I know.”
“Where is she?”
Victoria's voice dropped.
“She died five years ago.”
Ethan waited.
Victoria looked at the pendant.
Then at him.
“And before she died, she spent years trying to find a daughter my family pretended she had given up completely.”
Ethan's stomach tightened.
He did not yet know why.
Then Victoria whispered the daughter's name.
“Sarah Morgan.”
Ethan went completely still.
Sarah Morgan had become Sarah Cole.
May you like
His first wife.
Lily's mother.
