The Colonel Gave My Wedding to His Sick Sister novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: I Object

A sedative shows in Ginny's blood, and she walks into the church in a general's coat to stop the wedding in front of three hundred guests. Her sister collapses on cue and her father throws her out.

Kirk Maddox did not touch the cup.

He took a clean evidence bag from the glove box of his sedan, held it open, and let me drop the cup in myself.

"Chain of custody," he said. "From this second, it never leaves my hand or yours."

"You watched him do it," I said.

"I did. I'll answer for that. Get in the car."

I got in, barefoot, in my robe, with the church bells starting to ring across the lawn behind us.

The post clinic was four minutes away, and the duty doctor was a woman who looked at my pupils and then at the general and asked no questions.

She took blood and ran a rapid screen on the spot.

I sat on the exam table with my feet dangling and watched her read the strip.

"Positive for a sedative," she said. "A strong one. You were never prescribed this?"

"I take vitamins."

"Then somebody gave it to you. It's enough to put you under for hours."

I looked at the clock on her wall.

It said ten past one.

"The ceremony is at two," I said.

"Ginny," Kirk said. It was the first time he had used my name. "I can have military police stop it. That would take longer, and he would say it was a misunderstanding."

"I don't want it stopped quietly."

"What do you want?"

"I want them all to look at him while I say it."

He studied my face for a moment.

Then he took off his dress coat, with the stars on the shoulders, and held it out to me.

"Put it on," he said. "You'll walk in at my side."

The coat reached my knees, and the sleeves covered my hands.

I carried the doctor's printed result in one fist and Kirk carried the evidence bag in the other.

At a quarter to two we crossed the church lawn together, and every guest on the steps turned to stare.

Nobody stopped us at the doors.

The organ was playing the processional.

Livia stood at the end of the aisle in my gown, my veil over her face, and Dad had her arm.

My own father was walking her toward Ansel, who waited at the altar in his dress blues.

He was smiling at her.

I had never seen him smile at me like that.

I walked down the side aisle with Kirk, past three hundred people, and I did not hurry.

The officiant lifted his book and began.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to join this man and this woman."

"I object," I said.

My voice went all the way up to the rafters.

Every head in the church turned.

The organ stopped in the middle of a note.

Livia gasped and clutched the front of her lace shawl.

Mom stood up in the front pew with her hand over her mouth.

"Ginny," Ansel said, and he came halfway down the steps with his arms open. "Thank God. We've been so worried."

"Don't," I said.

"She's not herself, everyone," he said to the pews, gently. "She took something this morning for her nerves. I tried to stop her. Livia was only helping the family get through the day."

A murmur ran across the guests.

I heard someone say, "Poor thing."

I held up the doctor's page.

"At eleven this morning I woke up on a cot behind the photo tent," I said. "I was out for hours, and I never took anything."

"Colonel Drummond handed me a coffee before the portraits. The post clinic just found a prescription sedative in my blood."

"The cup is in this bag."

I turned and looked at the man beside me.

"General Maddox was there when it was handed to me."

Kirk stepped forward and spoke in a voice that carried to the back pews.

"The result is on that page. The cup is evidence. Colonel Drummond, you will not leave this building."

The silence was complete.

Ansel's smile held for a full second.

"General, with respect," he said. "She took her nerve pills and you are being used. Ask her mother."

Mom opened her mouth.

Then Livia swayed.

She put one hand to her chest and one to the pew, and she folded down onto the stone floor in a rush of white satin.

"Livia!" Mom screamed.

Dad let go of her arm and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Call an ambulance!" someone shouted.

"Her heart," Mom cried. "I told you her heart couldn't take this!"

A hundred phones rose up to film.

I stood in the aisle in a general's coat with the proof in my hand, and all the faces were turned away from me.

Ansel had already knelt next to Livia with his hand on her shoulder.

"Stay with me, sweetheart," he said, and his voice cracked.

Two women in the third pew looked at each other.

"Sweetheart?" one of them whispered. "To his fiancée's sister?"

Then Dad stood up and turned on me.

He was shaking, and his face was dark red.

"Look what you did," he said, loud enough for the whole church. "You couldn't give her one day."

"Dad, I was drugged," I said.

"You are not my daughter," he said. "Get out of my sight."

Nobody in that church said a word to stop him.

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