He Chose the Girl Who Tried to Kill Him novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Banns for Christmas Eve

The announcement was in the Sunday paper, in a box on the third page.

Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Severance and Mrs. Haldane have the honor to announce that the marriage of Miss Adaline Severance and Mr. Langston Haldane will take place on Christmas Eve at St. Paul's, Euclid Avenue.

Under it, in smaller type, they had put: All friends are cordially asked to attend.

I read it standing at my window, in the grey light, with the door locked behind me.

Harriet had said at the luncheon that she would send Severance after the tin box above the bookbinder's.

Now she had printed my wedding in the paper, so that I would have no time to stop her.

That afternoon my father came.

He carried a flat leather case and wore his Sunday coat.

The footman unlocked the door for him and locked it again from outside, and my father sat down in the armchair and put the case on his knees.

"Your mother's pearls," he said.

He opened it.

There were three strands, with the clasp worn thin.

"I took them out of the box last night," he said. "I thought you would want them for the church."

"You thought I would want them."

"Stand up, Adaline."

I stood.

He rose with a grunt and came behind me and put them around my throat.

His fingers were heavy and warm, and they fumbled at the clasp, as they had fumbled with my buttons on my first day of school.

"You are very like her," he said. "She would have been proud of you, in the end. You've shown spirit. I did not know you had it."

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