The Wife He Never Knew I Became novel · Chapter 3 of 32

Chapter 3: Get Out of My Shop

Margaret calls Lena a gold-digger in front of her customers and costs her a wedding, Lena throws her out, and that afternoon an invitation arrives for the mysterious Mrs. Rutherford.

The bell over my shop door rang when I pushed it open, and everyone inside turned around.

Margaret Zhang stood at my counter in a camel coat with a fur collar, her silver hair cut short and sharp as a blade.

Beside her sat the bride, twenty-seven, sweet, with her wedding binder on her knees.

The bride's mother sat next to her, holding her purse in both hands.

Two customers waited by the tulips, pretending not to listen.

Mei stood behind the counter in her overalls, her eyes huge behind her glasses.

"Good morning," I said. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Lena." The bride smiled, uncertain. "This is my godmother. She wanted to see the samples."

"We've met," Margaret said.

She didn't offer her hand. She hadn't touched me in three years, and the last time had been to take my house keys out of my palm.

I went behind the counter and laid out the sample arrangement I'd made on Friday.

White ranunculus, cherry branches, a little trailing jasmine.

Twenty-two tables at VanDusen Garden on the eighteenth of April.

Fourteen thousand dollars, the biggest order my shop had ever taken.

"It's lovely," the bride's mother said.

"It is," Margaret said. "She always had taste. It's the one thing I'll say for her."

She turned to the bride's mother.

"Did your daughter tell you who this is? This was my son's wife."

"Oh," said the bride's mother.

"Ask her how she paid for this shop," Margaret said pleasantly.

The bride's mother looked from Margaret to me. "What does that mean?"

One of the customers by the tulips stopped pretending.

"With eleven thousand dollars I saved working a grocery store flower counter," I said. "And the money from selling my car."

"Of course, dear."

"You never once asked the bank where your son's money went." I put my hands flat on the counter. "You didn't need to. You needed it to be me."

"Cancel it," Margaret told the bride's mother, gently, like a doctor. "Today. I'll pay for the florist at the Hotel Vancouver myself, as my wedding gift."

The bride's mother stood up.

"I think," she said, "we should talk about this at home."

"Mom," the bride said.

"At home."

The bride looked at me with her eyes full, and then she looked down at her binder.

I opened my register drawer, took out the deposit cheque I hadn't cashed yet, and held it out.

The bride's mother took it without meeting my eyes.

"There's no need to make a scene," Margaret said.

"You came into my shop," I said. "You told my customers I'm a thief. That's the scene."

"I told them the truth."

"Then tell them why a woman with a whole company to save came across town to wreck one bride's flowers."

Margaret's mouth thinned.

"Get out of my shop," I said.

Nobody moved.

Then Mei came around the counter, walked to the door and held it open, and the bell rang over her head.

"You heard her," Mei said cheerfully. "Oh, and smile on your way out, Mrs. Zhang. The camera over the register records sound too."

Margaret glanced up at the little black dome in the ceiling.

Mei had put it in last fall, after someone broke in and stole our till and a bucket of roses.

Margaret buttoned her coat without hurrying.

At the door she stopped beside me and spoke low, for me alone.

"You were nothing when my son found you, and you're nothing now," she said. "You're a florist sleeping with a married man."

"Is that what Vanessa told you?"

"Vanessa saw you sit at his right hand." She smiled. "I'm sure his wife will find it very interesting."

"His wife."

"Mrs. Rutherford is a very private woman. No one has ever met her." Margaret pulled on her gloves. "I intend to be the first. And before this month is out, she will know exactly what you are."

She walked out into the rain.

The bride and her mother went after her, and the bell rang three times and went still.

The customer by the tulips put her bunch back in the bucket and left without paying.

"Okay," she said. "I'm going to scream into the cooler now."

"Go ahead."

She went into the walk-in cooler and screamed, a short honest scream, and came back out pink.

"Fourteen grand," she said.

"I know."

"You should have told her. You should have stood there and said 'Actually, Margaret, I'm Mrs. Rutherford,' and watched her fall over the tulips."

"And then what?"

"And then she's on the floor in the tulips! That's the whole plan!"

I laughed, because I couldn't help it, and then I sat down on the stool behind the counter and put my face in my hands.

"Then his name is what saved me," I said into my palms. "And I never find out if I could have saved myself."

Mei put a cup of tea in front of me and her chin on top of my head.

My phone buzzed against the counter.

A text from Holden. A photo of a heavy cream card, engraved in gold.

THE ZHANG FOUNDATION REQUESTS THE HONOUR OF MRS. HOLDEN VALE AS GUEST OF HONOUR AT ITS SPRING GALA. FRIDAY, THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF APRIL.

Under it, he'd written:

"Your call."

I looked at it for a long time.

Mei read it over my shoulder and went very still.

Then I typed a reply and sent it before I could stop myself:

"Tell them she'll come."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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