Chapter 12 - THE WEDDING THAT NEVER HAPPENED
The ballroom had been paid for.
The flowers had been ordered.
The cake had been delivered.
Two hundred guests had arrived.
None of it mattered.
For weeks afterward, Ethan received polite messages from people who didn't know what happened.
Sorry things didn't work out.
Thinking of you.
Hope you can reconcile.
He stopped answering.
Some relatives couldn't understand why he refused to speak with Victoria.
“She was under extraordinary stress,” one person said.
“She apologized,” said another.
Ethan ended those conversations quickly.
There were things he was willing to debate.
His daughter's safety wasn't one of them.
The wedding photographs were stranger.
The photographer sent the pre-ceremony gallery automatically.
Victoria smiling beside the mirror.
Victoria adjusting her earrings.
Lily holding the flower basket.
Lily smiling up at Victoria.
Ethan could barely look at that one.
Victoria's hand rested gently on Lily's shoulder.
Less than an hour later, that same hand was pulling Lily's hair.
He deleted the gallery.
Except one photograph.
Lily alone.
Standing in the hallway with her basket.
White petals around her.
He printed it.
Not as a reminder of Victoria.
As proof that the day belonged to Lily's courage now.
Months later, Ruth invited Ethan and Lily to Claire's funeral.
Ethan wasn't sure they should attend.
Lily decided.
“I want to bring her flowers.”
So they went.
Claire was buried beside her grandmother.
Ruth placed the pendant inside a small glass display near the photograph rather than burying it.
Investigators had released it after documenting the evidence.
Victoria agreed it should go to Ruth.
Lily stood in front of Claire's portrait.
The same face from the tiny locket.
This time life-size.
“She looks nice,” Lily whispered.
Ruth knelt beside her.
“She was.”
Lily held out a small bunch of daisies.
“These are for her.”
Ruth began crying.
She hugged Lily.
Ethan looked away to give them privacy.
That was when he saw Victoria.
Standing far beyond the cemetery fence.
She had been permitted to attend under supervision but had chosen not to approach.
She and Ethan looked at each other.
Neither moved.
Victoria looked toward Lily.
May you like
Then toward Claire's grave.
Finally she lowered her head and walked away.
