519 Invitations Had Her Name, I Cancelled the Wedding novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Proof

In Conroy's workshop Della sees Colin's signed proof for 519 cards and a guest list with none of her people; Conroy admits he knew, she sets her terms, and Constance's car pulls up.

I got in the car, because my own hands were shaking too hard to drive.

Conroy drove us to Dock Road, to the rented bay where he repaired outboard motors on his own time.

It smelled of gasoline and cold coffee.

He turned on one work lamp and cleared a space on the bench.

My phone buzzed in my purse.

Colin had called fourteen times.

Lacey had texted three: "Della please call me," "Please," and "It's not what it looks like."

I turned the phone face down on the bench.

Conroy opened a folder and spread out two pages.

His hands were big, and the knuckles were scarred, and I noticed that I had never watched them do anything before.

"This is the printer's proof," he said. "Colin signed it in June."

At the bottom was Colin's loopy signature, and a date four months old.

The proof showed the same cream card with the same gold edge.

Under the names, in small print, it said: Quantity 519. Ship to: Mrs. C. Rutledge, c/o Rutledge Marine Supply.

"Five hundred and nineteen," I said.

"That's what he ordered."

"Then why did I get five hundred and twenty?"

Conroy looked at the lamp and not at me.

"Not tonight," he said.

I didn't push, because there was a second page.

It was a spreadsheet, six columns wide, with 519 rows.

I ran my finger down the names.

They were Colin's customers, his mother's committee women, his golf club, his old fraternity.

I read the list all the way to the bottom and then went back to the top.

"My grandfather isn't on here," I said.

"No."

"None of the teachers I work with. None of my cousins." My voice went thin. "I mailed Colin my side of the list in July. Forty-one people."

"He never gave it to the printer."

"So who was going to sit on my side of the aisle?"

Conroy rubbed the back of his neck.

"Nobody," he said. "There wasn't going to be a bride's side."

I sat down on a stool because my knees had stopped working.

For four months, I had been paying for a wedding that I was not going to be in.

I had paid the caterer and the florist and the pavilion deposit.

I had paid forty-one thousand dollars, all of it from the sale of my mother's share in a boat.

"Did you know?" I asked.

He looked at me for the first time since we had come in.

"Yes."

The word dropped into the room and stayed there.

"How long?"

"Della."

"How long, Conroy?"

"I'd rather tell you when you can stand to hear it."

I stood up.

I was angry in a way that felt almost clean, because it had a name now, and the name was Colin's best man.

"You've sat across from me at every Sunday dinner since June," I said.

"I know."

"You passed me the potatoes."

"I know."

I picked up the folder and held it against my chest.

"Here's how it's going to go," I said. "Until Saturday, you do what I tell you. You drive me where I need to go, you tell me whatever I ask, and you do not explain yourself."

"Explain myself," he said slowly.

"I can't listen to it. If you start explaining, I'll start forgiving you, and I'm not ready to forgive anybody."

He thought about it for a long moment.

Then he nodded once.

"All right," he said. "What do you want first?"

"I want to know how long Lacey has been Colin's."

"You'll want to ask her yourself."

"That wasn't an explanation."

"No," he said, and one corner of his mouth moved. "It was a suggestion."

I almost laughed, and that scared me more than the cards had.

Outside, tires crunched on the gravel.

Conroy went to the roll-up door and lifted it six inches.

A long gray sedan sat at the end of the lot with its engine running.

The driver got out, opened the back door and stood with his hands folded.

The back window slid down.

Colin's mother looked out at me, in her camel coat and her pearls, her face soft with concern.

"Della, dear," Constance Rutledge said. "There you are. You must be frozen. Come home with me and have some supper, and we'll fix all of this."

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