92 Days Before Our Wedding, My Best Friend Won Thanksgiving With My Fiancé novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: I Don't

Mrs. Koehler walked to the altar on Gwen's arm, and nobody in the ballroom made a sound.

She stopped in front of the judge and opened a leather folder.

"Page six of the Koehler Family Trust," she said. "I am the trustee. I signed this line last March."

She held up the page so the first rows could see.

Approved: Matilda Delaney.

She uncapped the pen and drew one straight line through my name.

"I withdraw my approval of this bride," she said. "And of any other."

Preston's smile fell off his face.

"Grandmother."

"You have until midnight, Preston, to marry a woman I have approved in writing. I have approved nobody."

"We're at the altar."

"You are at an altar with no bride I will sign for."

"You can't."

"I can. I have." She turned a second page toward the board. "The house, the lake property, and forty percent of Koehler Supply go to the Koehler Foundation when the clock turns midnight tonight."

A low noise went around the room.

The board chair set his cane against his knee and nodded once.

The judge cleared his throat.

"I'm obliged to proceed," he said, in a strangled voice. "Ms. Delaney, do you take this man..."

"I don't," I said.

Preston grabbed my wrist.

"Matilda, stop. Say it later. Say yes now and cut it after."

"Let go."

"Say it for the money, say it for anything..."

"Let go of her," said Gwen, loud, from the aisle.

I took out my phone and held it up.

"I have something for the room," I said. "Gwen, the speaker."

She pressed a button on the amp by the quartet.

Kendall's voice came out of the walls, thick and sure.

"We needed someone she'd say yes to."

The room went still.

"Someone good. Someone who goes to church on Easter and looks his grandmother in the eye."

Heads turned toward the front row.

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