Chapter 5: The Dress

"Come to dinner on Wednesday," my father said on the phone.

His voice was flat, and I could hear a door closing behind him.

"Come alone. We'll settle this as a family."

"Laurence comes with me."

"Delaney."

"Or I don't come."

There was a long silence, and then he hung up.

I stood in the club hallway with my napkin in my pocket and looked at the phone.

My father had filed the slip himself.

I had spent seven years thinking he only believed the lie.

On Monday morning I took Laurence to the only bridal shop in Cedar Landing.

"I need a dress by Saturday," I said. "Something off the rack. I'm not picky."

"You don't have to do this in a shop that knows you," Laurence said.

"It's the only one with a seamstress who can finish in five days."

A little bell rang when we walked in.

The woman behind the counter was gray now and wore her glasses on a string.

She looked up, and she put down her tape measure.

"Delaney Whalley," she said.

"Hello."

"Come here, child."

She did not hug me, but she took my chin and turned my face to the light.

"You got thin."

"I got a business."

"I read about the party." She let go. "I don't believe a word the paper says about you. I never did."

I had to look at the floor for a second.

"I need a dress," I said. "Five days. Something simple."

"You don't need a new one." She walked to the back and pulled a curtain aside. "I still have yours."

She held up a garment bag.

I knew it before she unzipped it.

Ivory silk, a plain bodice, long sleeves, my mother's old lace at the cuffs.

I had left it on the floor of the bridal suite seven years ago.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Runaway Bride Is Marrying His Billionaire Boss from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.