They Vetoed My Wedding 5 Times I Vetoed Them for Life novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Funeral Card

"Dee, please. Don't tell Dad you heard that."

Cal had come up the driveway at a run, and now he stood in front of me with both hands out.

"What didn't come?" I said.

"Nothing. It's a business thing. Mom's expense account."

"You said it comes on the twenty-eighth."

"Dee."

"What comes on the twenty-eighth, Cal?"

He opened his mouth and shut it again.

Behind him, the front door banged open and Dad's voice called, "Calvin?"

"Nothing," Cal said, louder, and he walked away from me without another word.

I put the dress in my car and drove down the hill.

I did not understand yet what I had heard.

I understood that every single person in my family was afraid of something, and it was not me.

On Friday evening, the town came to say goodbye to my mother.

The funeral home was full by six, and the line ran out the door and down the steps.

Mom had sold the paint to half of them.

The casket was closed, as Dad had said it would be, a long lid of pale wood with white roses on top.

I stood next to it in a black dress with Theo behind me.

I could not look at the wood for longer than a few seconds.

Dad stood on my other side and shook every hand.

"Thank you for coming. She loved this town."

He said it forty times, and every time his voice shook in the same place.

At seven, the pastor lifted his hand for quiet.

"Walter would like to say a few words."

Dad stepped up beside the casket, one hand resting on the lid.

The room went still.

"My wife of thirty-four years was the heart of this family," he said. "She was gentle. She was selfless. And as her last gift to us, she asked for something that I intend to honor."

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