The Wedding She Survived novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Vestibule

St. Brendan's smelled of wax and old wood, exactly as it had five years ago.

I stood inside the double doors on Tuesday afternoon with Killian on one side of me and the three children on the other.

Poppy had insisted on wearing her good shoes.

At the far end of the nave, a gray-haired woman sat at the organ with her hands folded in her lap.

She stood when she saw us.

She came down the aisle fast, and then slowly, with one hand on the pews.

"Miss Gleeson," she said. "I've wanted to say this for five years."

"Go ahead."

"A man in a gray suit came to the organ loft that morning."

"What did he want?"

"He said there might be an emergency with the groom."

"And?"

"I was to keep playing the processional until he told me to stop. He gave me an envelope."

Killian went rigid beside me.

"I took it," she said. "I didn't open it, and I should have handed it back."

"You played it three times."

"With you standing at the doors. I knew by the second time something was wrong."

"Why did you keep playing?"

"Because he told me the music would hold everyone in their seats," she said. "And I let it."

She pressed her hand to her mouth.

"I let a hundred and eighty people stare at you for an envelope."

Her eyes were wet.

"I returned the money to the parish," she said. "The same week. I would like to return the rest to you."

"The rest?"

"The part where I played it for them and not for you." She lifted her chin. "If you'll have me, I'll play it once. One time. When you walk in."

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