My Fiancé Let Her Ruin Our Wedding but Insisted It Was Just a Joke novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Closing Sale

Darcy's POV

Farrell & Lace was lit up at ten that night, every light on.

The pink awning was torn on one corner, and the front window held a heap of white tulle spilling onto the pavement.

A crowd stood on the sidewalk, thirty or forty of them, with their phones up.

Some were brides in coats over their dresses, and some were mothers holding folders marked DEPOSIT.

Tobias pulled the car to the curb.

"I'll be here," he said.

"Don't come in."

"I won't."

I got out in my green gala dress.

The crowd saw me and parted.

A woman I did not know said, "Go get her."

I opened the door.

The bell rang.

Marley was sitting in the middle of the shop floor in her black dress with her shoes off, surrounded by torn gowns.

There were dozens of them.

She had cut down the seams of each one, from the neckline to the hem, so that they hung in strips.

Her hair had come loose.

In her right hand she held a pair of long scissors, and in her left, the small black notebook.

A phone on a tripod, in the corner, was pointed at her.

The red light was on.

"Hi, Darce," she said.

"Hi."

"They're watching. Eleven thousand. They want to see if you cry."

"I'm not going to cry."

"No," she said. "You never do anymore."

I walked across the shop, between the racks of ruined dresses, and sat down on the carpet in front of her.

I was in a good dress on a dirty floor, and I did not care.

"You made a mess," I said.

"I'm closing."

"I can see that."

"The landlord called. The bride's mother posted my name. Eleven brides asked for their deposits in one day." She laughed, a cracked, awful sound. "I spent eight years on this shop. And you did it in an afternoon with a diary."

"I didn't write the diary."

"You read it out loud."

"You said it first."

She flinched.

Then her face started to come apart.

I had seen it come apart once, in this room, in front of a bride, and it had been fury.

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