Dumped at the Altar, Claimed by a Hidden Tycoon novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Say It Again

Colby demands she stop in front of every guest, and Kendrick answers in one sentence.

"Becky." Colby came down the aisle at a half run. "What is this?"

The clapping had stopped.

Nobody in the ballroom moved.

Colby reached the arch and looked at the judge, at Max, and last at the man in the wheelchair holding his wife's hand.

"Becky, whatever you think you're doing, stop. I'm back. We can start again."

Becky looked at him.

His shirt was stuck to his chest with sweat, and his tie hung loose.

"You came back fast," she said.

"The hospital had no record of her." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Vanessa wasn't there. Her phone is off. I don't know what's going on, but I came straight back to you, and that should tell you something."

"It tells me she's well enough to switch her phone off," Becky said.

"Don't start. I'm here, aren't I? Now take that thing off your finger and tell the judge we're ready."

"That thing is a wedding ring," Kendrick said.

Colby turned and looked down at him as though he had only just noticed him.

"Who the hell is this?"

"Her husband."

Colby laughed, once, a high ugly sound.

"Her husband. Becky, are you out of your mind? He's in a wheelchair. Is this who you grabbed to spite me? A man you met in a hallway?"

Becky's face went tight.

A woman in the third row gasped, and one of the pastry shop girls said something sharp under her breath.

"Don't talk about him like that," Becky said.

"I'm being honest! You can't marry a cripple to make a point. He can't even"

"Colby," his father said.

He had stood up in the second row. His voice shook.

"Be quiet. Sit down."

"Dad, she's"

"Be quiet."

Colby stopped, because his father had never once spoken to him that way in public.

Becky looked at the room.

She had thought about what she would say to Colby for a long time, years of it, on nights when he did not come home.

She had thought she would cry when the moment came.

She did not cry.

She reached into the pocket of her sash and took out the engagement ring she had pulled off in the corridor.

It was a small stone on a thin band, and she had put half of the money toward it herself.

"Hold out your hand," she said.

Colby held it out, confused.

She dropped the ring into his palm.

"You told me once that your first year after school was the hardest of your life," she said. "I paid half your rent for that year. I paid for the course that got you hired. I picked up your dry cleaning on my lunch breaks. That's all I'm owed, and I don't want it back. Keep the ring. Give it to her."

"Becky"

"You left me on the floor in front of two hundred people," she said. "You shoved me. And you told me it was my fault. I'm only saying it once so nobody here has to wonder."

A murmur stirred through the pews.

Colby's mother had both hands pressed to her chest.

"Colby, did you push her?" she whispered.

He did not answer.

"I was upset," he said. "She wouldn't let me go. Vanessa could have been"

"Vanessa," Becky said, "called me thirty seconds after you left, to thank me for letting you go. She sounded fine. She was in a moving car."

The room was very quiet.

Colby opened his mouth, and for once he had nothing.

Kendrick had not moved through any of this.

Now he turned his chair a few inches, just enough to face the MacCormack family.

"Sir," he said to Colby's father. "MacCormack Freight, fourth floor of my building on Harbor Street."

"Mr. Strathmore." Colby's father swallowed. "Sir, I had no idea. I'm so sorry for my son. He's young. If there's anything"

"Your quarterly rent is late again."

"I know. It's being handled."

"I know it is." Kendrick's voice did not rise. "My wife has had a long morning. Please take your son out."

Colby stared from his father to Kendrick.

"Your building?" he said slowly. "Dad, what is he talking about?"

"Out," his father said, and he took Colby by the arm.

Colby came with him, still looking back over his shoulder at Becky.

She did not look at him again.

His mother stopped beside her on the way out.

"I'm so sorry," the older woman said, and she had been crying. "I should have said something years ago."

"Yes," Becky said gently. "You should have."

When the doors closed behind them, the pastry shop girls broke into noise all at once, laughing and crying and talking over each other, and the oldest came running up the aisle to hold Becky in a floury hug.

Becky held on, because for a minute she needed to.

Over her friend's shoulder she saw Max cross the floor to Kendrick and bend down.

"Sir," Max said, very low. "They found Miss Sholes's phone."

Becky went still.

She had heard Vanessa's name this morning, in a text she had thought was kind.

Kendrick looked up and met her eyes across the room.

"Becky," he said. "We need to talk. Upstairs."

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