His Ex Wore My Ring, So I Married His Rival Instead novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Ring
Forty minutes before the ceremony Whitney walks into the church wearing Leah's ring, Kelsey welcomes her as family, and Leah takes the ring back and walks out, until Bruce Garrison says: marry me today.
Forty minutes before I was supposed to marry Travis Landry, his ex-girlfriend walked into the church wearing my engagement ring.
I was in the church vestibule with my bouquet, waiting for the organist to start.
His sister, my maid of honor, was fixing my veil for the third time.
"Hold still," she said. "You look perfect. Stop shaking."
"I'm not shaking. I'm hungry."
"You're allowed to be both."
Behind the closed doors, two hundred guests were finding their seats.
I had peeked through the crack twenty minutes earlier and seen one thing that bothered me.
Travis had insisted on inviting the man he called his oldest enemy.
He had written the man's place card himself and put it in the last pew, alone.
When I asked why, he laughed. "Keep your enemies where you can see them, babe."
Then the front doors opened behind us and a woman stepped in out of the October light.
Honey-blonde hair, a cream dress, a small smile.
I had seen her in photographs on Travis's mother's piano. Whitney Holtby, his girlfriend from age seventeen to twenty-six.
Three days ago Travis had put his hands on my shoulders and said, "Whitney's in Nashville. She didn't even RSVP. Trust me, she's the last person who'd show up."
She was here.
She lifted her left hand to push her hair back, slowly, so the light would catch it.
A small oval diamond in a worn yellow-gold band.
I knew that ring better than I knew my own hands.
My grandmother had worn it for fifty-eight years, and I had worn it for fourteen months.
Last Friday Travis had taken it from me for a polish before the wedding. "I'll pick it up myself," he'd said. "Don't worry about it."
Kelsey's hands dropped off my veil.
I thought she was going to help me.
Kelsey walked right past me with her arms open.
"Whit! You came!" She hugged her hard and turned to face the sanctuary doors, which an usher had just pushed open. "Everybody, look who's here. This is Whitney. She's going to be my sister-in-law."
Nobody in the church moved.
Two hundred faces turned from her to me.
The pastor stopped halfway up the aisle with his book in his hand.
In the front pew, Travis's mother Dolores closed her purse and did not look surprised.
A guest in the third row had her phone up. Then a second. Then a man near the back began to film with both hands.
Travis came out of the groom's room in his navy morning suit, tugging at his cuff.
He saw Whitney. He saw me.
He looked at Whitney first.
"Travis," I said. My voice came out level. "Why is she wearing my grandmother's ring?"
He crossed the vestibule and took my elbow.
"Leah. Babe. Don't do this in front of everyone."
"Answer me."
"Let's just get married," he said quietly. "Please. I'll explain everything tonight. I promise it's not what it looks like."
Whitney tilted her head and gave me a gentle look. "He told me it was always meant to be mine. I'm sorry, Leah. I didn't want it to be like this."
She didn't look sorry. She had rehearsed it.
I looked at Kelsey, who was staring at the floor.
I looked at Travis, who still had hold of my arm and was smiling at the guests over my shoulder.
I looked at the phones.
He wanted me to say yes in front of all of them.
He wanted me to be too embarrassed to say anything else.
I took my arm out of his hand.
Then I walked to Whitney, took her left hand in both of mine and slid my grandmother's ring off her finger.
It stuck at the knuckle for a second, and I pulled until it came free.
"This was never yours to wear," I said.
Whitney's mouth opened. Nothing came out of it.
I closed my fingers around the ring and turned to Travis.
"I put forty-one thousand dollars into our house account. I want it out of that account and back in mine before I'm home tonight."
"Leah, we'll talk about the money later."
"No," I said. "We won't."
I put my bouquet in Kelsey's arms. She took it without looking up.
I walked past the ushers toward the front doors, with every phone following me.
In the last pew, a man stood up.
Dark hair going grey at the temples, a dark suit, a chipped front tooth. Bruce Garrison.
I did not turn around at the doors.
So I stepped out.
The parking lot was bright and cold. I stood on the sidewalk in my dress, shaking so hard that I could barely hold the ring.
The church door opened and closed behind me.
"Leah Goodall."
Bruce stopped a few feet away with his hands in his pockets.
"We met once," he said. "You won't remember."
"The hospital raffle," I said. "Three years ago. You laughed when they gave me the toaster."
His face changed, just slightly. "You remember."
"What do you want, Mr. Garrison?"
He looked at the church doors, then at my hand.
"It's twenty past one," he said. "Franklin County Probate Court closes at four thirty, and Ohio has no waiting period for a marriage license."
I stared at him.
"Marry me today," Bruce said. "And let him watch."
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