Antler Crown, Silent Departure novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Not Good Enough

I read the June text a third time, and the words did not change.

Give it until the wedding. I won't say a word. Let her have her engagement party. She's happy.

Lacey lowered her phone and watched my face.

She had been saving it for this room, and she wanted to see it land.

I did not give it to her.

"Is that the best you have?" I said.

Her smile slipped.

"Excuse me?"

"You've had that since June. You saved it for a courthouse full of strangers. I thought you'd have something worse."

Zack stepped between us with both hands up, and the grin came back.

"Okay. Everybody's upset. Bridge, come on. It was a joke that got out of hand."

"A joke," I said.

"Poppy was in on it. Ask Poppy."

Poppy did not lower her phone.

"I was told it was a gift video for Bridget," she said. "Five hundred dollars, and I was to wear her dress for ten minutes."

"See?" Zack said. "She got paid."

"I got lied to," Poppy said, and turned the screen toward the couples in the plastic chairs. "Want to read who wrote the part about how Bridget never makes a scene? She'll just walk out, and we get the whole day to ourselves."

Lacey went white.

"Those are private."

"You sent them to a stranger," Poppy said. "That's not private."

Lacey lunged for the phone.

Zack caught her by the elbow, and she whipped around and hit his arm with the folder.

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