The Life I Chose novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Explain It to the Guests

In front of eighty guests and his parents, Margo makes Holt say it again and names it for what it is, leaves the ring in the cake and goes home to a knock at ten.

For a second nobody in the ballroom breathed.

Kendall saw the screen on Holt's phone before he did.

She yanked the hospital blanket up over her belly.

Too late.

Eighty people had already seen it.

Holt squinted into the camera.

"Margo? Where are you? What is that noise?"

"The rehearsal dinner," I said into the microphone.

My voice came out of every speaker in the room.

"You asked me to explain things to the guests. They're all here. Say hi."

The color left his face so fast it was almost funny.

"Turn that off."

"I can't explain it as well as you did," I said. "Tell them what you told me."

"Margo. Turn it off. Now."

"Fine," I said. "I'll do it."

I turned to face the room.

"Kendall is nineteen weeks pregnant. Holt is the father."

Somebody's fork hit a plate.

"He'd like to postpone our wedding for a year. He'd like me to quit my job and look after her. And he asked me to make sure his parents don't find out."

I looked at the head table.

"Hi, Marjorie. Hi, Mr. Thackery."

Holt's father stood up so hard his chair went over backward.

He's a big man, sixty-three, with a voice he used to build half the office blocks downtown.

He didn't use it now.

He just stared at the screen.

"Holt," he said. "Is this true?"

Holt's mouth opened and closed.

"Dad, it was one night. She'd been dumped. She came to me soaking wet, she was a mess, I was trying to help her..."

"She's your sister," someone said.

It was one of Holt's aunts, at table two.

She said it to nobody.

"Adopted," Holt snapped. "She's adopted. It's not the same thing."

"She was seven," I said. "You were thirteen. She grew up across the hall from you."

I looked at Marjorie.

"She calls you Mom."

Marjorie set her wine glass down on the tablecloth.

She did it very carefully.

Her face didn't move at all.

On the screen, Kendall pressed her hands over her eyes.

"Daddy, please don't look at me like that."

Her father turned his back on the screen.

That was all.

He just turned around.

I have never seen a man do anything louder.

"The sheer nerve," said a woman near the bar.

"He wanted her to tell us?" said someone else. "He wanted the bride to make the announcement?"

"Margo." Holt leaned so close to his phone that his nose filled half the screen. "You just humiliated my entire family in front of everyone we know."

"No," I said. "You did that nineteen weeks ago. I just told them."

I found the events manager by the door.

She was holding her clipboard against her chest.

"Everything for tomorrow is cancelled," I said into the microphone. "The ceremony, the reception, the band, the flowers. Tonight's bill goes to Mr. Holt Thackery."

She nodded and wrote something down without looking.

"And Holt."

He looked up.

"We're not postponing anything. There's no wedding. Not next year. Not ever."

I ended the call.

Our engagement photo came back up on the screen, the beach in Watch Hill, his lips on my temple.

Ruthie reached over and unplugged the laptop.

The screen went blue.

I walked to the cake table.

Four tiers, white fondant, sugar roses.

The planner backed away from me.

I slid the ring off my finger.

Two carats, his grandmother's diamond, the one Marjorie had cried over when Holt put it on me.

I pushed it into the top tier, right through the icing, all the way down.

Then I went over to the minister.

"I'm sorry you came out on a Friday for this," I said.

He shook his head.

"Don't you dare apologize to me," he said quietly.

Marjorie caught me at the ballroom doors.

She put her cool hand on my wrist.

She smelled like she always did, gardenias and cold cream.

"Margo, sweetheart. You're in shock. Go home and sleep, and we'll talk about all this tomorrow. Just the two of us."

Her voice was so kind.

It was the voice she'd used when she helped me pick the flowers.

"There's nothing to talk about," I said.

She smiled at me anyway.

"There always is."

I took my wrist back and walked out.

The locksmith's van was in my driveway when we pulled up.

He was on his knees at the back door, a headlamp strapped to his forehead.

"Front's done," he said. "Garage too. Ten minutes on this one."

"Take your time," I said.

Ruthie and I went upstairs with a box of trash bags.

We didn't fold anything.

Holt's suits went in on their hangers.

His shoes went in on top of them.

His golf clubs went out to the porch in their bag, and his good watch box went into the pocket of his good coat.

"His razor?" Ruthie held it up.

"Porch."

"His protein powder?"

"Porch."

"His framed photo of himself shaking hands with the governor?"

I thought about it.

"Porch. Face down."

By nine thirty there were eleven black bags lined up along my porch rail.

The locksmith handed me a ring with four new keys on it.

"Old ones won't work on anything now," he said.

I paid him triple, plus a tip.

Ruthie hugged me in the front hall.

"I'm getting wine and fries," she said. "Don't you dare cry before I get back."

"I'm not going to cry."

"I know. That's what scares me."

She left.

I sat on the stairs in my rehearsal dress with my shoes off.

The house was very quiet.

It was mine, and it was quiet, and nobody was going to walk in with a key.

At ten o'clock exactly, somebody knocked.

Three knocks, slow and steady.

Not Ruthie, she would have kicked the door.

Not Holt, he would have used his key.

I opened it with the chain on.

A tall man stood under the porch light between Holt's garbage bags.

Navy wool coat, short dark beard, a bottle of wine in one hand.

He looked older.

His eyes were exactly the same.

"Hi, Margo," said Daniel Keough. "Happy birthday."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend