Fifteen Days to Divorce novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Tenth Wedding

The barn smelled of hay, cut peaches and candle wax.

Strings of small lights hung from the rafters, and a hundred and ten guests sat on folding chairs in long rows.

Portia stood at the entrance in the green dress and held a white card in her hand.

"Portia Holloway," it said, in a loopless, upright hand.

Spelled right.

She read it twice, the way Frances had.

"Table four," Malachi said at her shoulder. "It's by the aisle."

"The aisle?"

"They gave you a seat where everyone can see you."

"That's a terrible idea."

"I asked for it," Malachi said.

She turned and looked at him.

He wore the navy suit with the sleeve fixed, no tie, his hair combed in a way that was clearly Frances's doing.

"You asked for it," she said.

"I wrote a note to the bride. 'Please put her where she can't hide.'"

"Is that what you think I do?"

"It's what you did for nine weddings," Malachi said, gently. "In the back, with the cake."

She wanted to be angry.

She walked down the aisle instead, on his arm, and sat down in the fourth row with her handbag in her lap.

The chairs were hard.

The sun came in gold through the open doors, and a girl in a straw hat was handing out paper fans.

Frances sat across the aisle in the wide hat that had been to every premiere and funeral and fitting for twenty years.

She waved with a whole forearm.

Ellie sat beside her with a mug of tea and a small pie in a tin on her knee.

She nodded at Malachi.

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