Chapter 24: Early

I got to the chapel at ten fifteen, forty-five minutes early, and the stone steps were already swept.

Ross was waiting on the top one in a rented tuxedo with his tie crooked.

"You're early," he said.

"So are you."

"I wanted to be the first person here."

He held the heavy door open.

Inside, the same quartet sat in the same corner, tuning up.

The same light came through the same tall window and fell across the aisle.

Sixty guests sat in the pews this time, instead of a hundred and forty.

My aunt was in the front row, with a tissue already in her hand.

The pastor stood at the altar.

And in front of him, in a plain black suit with a white rose in the lapel, stood Rafe.

He turned around when the door opened.

He saw me, and his whole face changed.

"Not yet," Ross whispered, and pushed me gently back into the vestibule. "You're supposed to wait for the music."

"I'm not worried."

"I know."

Dustin came up beside us in his gray suit.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

His condo was sold.

The estate account held every dollar of the eighty thousand again, with interest, because Ross had insisted.

Victoria had pleaded guilty in January.

She had written Rafe one letter from the county facility.

It sat unopened in a drawer in his kitchen.

He had told me he might read it someday, and he might not.

"I don't have the right to be the one," Dustin said, low. "If you'd rather Ross."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fiancé and Brothers Left Me at the Altar for My Adopted Sister from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.