Chapter 3

The next afternoon, I went to the venue alone.

I hadn't even reached the banquet hall before the sight of it cut straight into me.

Every flower arrangement, every touch of decor, was styled exactly the way Mia liked.

The delicate dishes laid out on the tables were all her favorites too.

Several of them were foods I was clearly allergic to, foods I had told Duncan about again and again.

A staff member set the wedding invitations neatly in front of me.

I looked through the guest list. More than half the names meant nothing to me.

Then the staff member handed me a register.

"Miss Henson, this guest list was finalized personally by Mr. Barnes. We invited everyone strictly according to this book."

My fingertips went cold as I slowly opened it.

Mia's parents' names sat right where my own parents were meant to be at the wedding.

I suddenly thought of what Duncan used to say.

He always told me, "Susan, even though your parents are gone, I'll find a way to give you a perfect wedding."

Numbly, I kept turning the pages.

A small yellowed slip of paper slid out from between the leaves.

The handwriting on it was young and unpolished, a promise Duncan had written in his own hand as a boy.

And every word of it was a vow to Mia.

"Mia, no matter how far apart we are one day, I'll find you, I'll remember every address of yours, and I'll keep you safe year after year."

I froze where I stood.

The staff around me noticed something was wrong.

Probing, pitying looks settled on me one after another, until the chill of them ran through my whole body.

Expressionless, I tucked the slip away.

Looking at the carefully arranged hall in front of me, all I felt was how absurd, how laughable it all was.

Duncan wanted to use the excuse of marrying me.

At a wedding that was supposed to be mine, he meant to make good on the regrets and dreams he and Mia had carried since they were young.

He'd even gone so far as to let Mia's family stand in for the parents' seats that should have been mine.

But my Mama Grace was ill. She wasn't dead.

I lifted my eyes and spoke calmly to the staff.

"Cancel everything. The decorations, the banquet, the invitations. All of it."

Anything that wasn't mine, I didn't want a scrap of it.

The paperwork was almost done when Mia suddenly appeared in the banquet hall.

Seeing me there alone, she couldn't hide the smugness in her eyes.

"This is Duncan's big day, so of course I came with some friends to keep an eye on things myself."

The friends behind her didn't bother hiding their contempt, murmuring under their breath.

"So this is the woman Duncan's marrying. I heard she's just an orphan with no parents at all."

The one beside her pretended to hold her back, and every word landed like a knife.

"Don't talk about her like that."

Another simply scoffed.

"Was I wrong? Duncan said it himself, she's got no parents coming to the wedding.

So he brought Mia's parents in to fill the elders' seats, just so the wedding wouldn't be an embarrassment!"

They tossed the words back and forth between them, grinding what little dignity I had left into dust.

Mia watched the whole thing like it was a show.

When she caught sight of the slip of paper and the wedding book in my hands, she gasped at once, feigning surprise.

"I can't believe he still kept the diary Duncan and I wrote when we were kids."

"We were childhood sweethearts. Back then we really did promise we'd end up together."

"But Susan, you mustn't misunderstand. It was all just a childish joke."

Weariness settled over me, and I turned to leave that suffocating place.

But Mia blocked my way.

Smugness sat plain across her face.

"My mother's having surgery tomorrow, and Duncan promised he'd stay with me the whole time."

She glanced over at the staff.

Then Mia declared, certain of herself, "You'd better cancel the wedding. The groom won't be coming tomorrow."

A staff member couldn't help but speak up.

"The wedding is tomorrow."

"Listen to her. Cancel it."

I cut the staff member off with a nod of confirmation.

Now that Mia had said it herself, Duncan could accept it with a clear conscience.

At that, Mia laughed so hard she was practically trembling with it.

"Good, at least you know your place."

I didn't bother with her. I went straight home.

The moment I pushed the door open, I froze completely.

The house was a wreck, tables and chairs overturned.

Things were scattered across the floor, as if someone had fallen there.

Trembling, I crouched down and picked a battered little bracelet out of the mess.

It was the string bracelet I had braided for Mama Grace myself when I was four.

She had never once taken it off.