Chapter 20: Take Notes

Sadie's POV

The wedding was on the lawn of the Maddox house, under a white tent, in front of three hundred people.

The same three hundred who had come to see me engaged to the wrong man.

They sat in rows of gold chairs and watched me walk down the aisle alone, in plain ivory with my hair in a knot.

My father had not been asked to give me away.

He sat in the third row with his hands in his lap.

Ezra waited at the end, in a black suit, with the prayer beads on his wrist.

He did not smile.

He looked at me the whole way down, and I did not look away either.

On the right-hand side, in the front row, sat Colby and Daphne.

Daphne wore white.

Nobody had told her not to.

She held up her left hand and the diamond caught the sun, and she turned to the woman beside her and said something I could read from forty feet.

Look what I got.

I reached the altar.

Ezra took my hands.

They were warm and not quite steady.

"You paid me," he said, very low, so only I could hear.

"I did."

"I have never been so insulted in my life."

"You liked it."

"I did," he said, and the corner of his mouth moved.

The officiant, a retired judge with a kind face, cleared his throat and began.

He spoke about family and trust and the long road to this day.

I let it wash past me.

When he asked if anyone knew a reason this couple should not be joined, Gerald stood up in the second row.

He had not been invited to speak.

"I do," he said. "This is not a real marriage. This is a coup. My brother has stolen my son's bride and my father's chair, and I will not sit..."

"Sit down, Gerald," Ezra said.

"I won't."

"Then stand," Ezra said. "It is the last time you will be allowed to."

Two of his men moved down the aisle.

Gerald sat.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fiancé Called Me Boring, So I Slept With His Uncle from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.