Chapter 23: The Line

Della's POV

I held the pen over the empty line for a long moment.

Then I put the cap back on it.

"Not here," I said.

Conroy's eyes searched my face.

"This one isn't theirs," I said. "They had five hundred and nineteen. They don't get the last."

He let out a low, broken laugh.

I took his hand and walked him down the white carpet, in my wedding dress, past every chair.

Nobody stopped us.

At the back, Amos stood by the double doors with the bolt already drawn and his cap in his fist.

He didn't say a word.

He put his hand on my shoulder for a second.

Then he opened the door.

It was a little after two, and the sun was out on the lake.

We went to the Merrin Boathouse.

The pavilion was still booked in my name, and I had the key, because no one had thought to ask for it back.

Inside, the long room smelled of lacquer and cold water.

The seating chart stood on its easel by the window, with its head table of six and no bride's side.

I walked up to it and turned it face to the wall.

Then I sat on the edge of the head table, in the white silk, and put the card on the cloth beside me.

"Now," I said.

Conroy stood a few feet away with his hands in his pockets.

"Are you still giving orders?"

"The terms said Saturday."

"It's Saturday."

"Then they've run out," I said. "Come here anyway."

He crossed the floor.

I took the pen out of my bag and wrote on the line, in my school handwriting, his first name and then his last.

Keep reading free with an account. Start 519 Invitations Had Her Name, I Cancelled the Wedding from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.