His Ex Wore My Ring, So I Married His Rival Instead novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: The Pins
On her wedding night at Bruce's farmhouse he takes out her veil pins, and her banking app shows the joint account emptied to zero.
Whitney was in the passenger seat of the Mercedes.
She stayed there, with the window down and her sunglasses on, and let Travis do the walking.
He stopped at the bottom of the courthouse steps and looked at my hand.
At my grandmother's ring on the wrong finger. At Bruce's hand on my back.
"No," Travis said. "No. You didn't."
"Four fifteen," Bruce said. "The judge signed it. It's on file."
Travis's smile showed up a second late.
"Babe, you're upset. Everyone saw you were upset. A judge will undo this in a week."
"Don't call me babe."
"Leah."
"You gave my grandmother's ring to another woman an hour before our wedding."
I said it loudly enough for the people on the courthouse steps to hear.
A man with a briefcase stopped. Two women with coffee slowed down.
Travis lowered his voice. "We can fix this."
"There's nothing to fix. I'm done."
"You're making a mistake you can't take back."
"It's the only one I made today that I'd make again."
His eyes went to Bruce.
"You think you've won something," Travis said.
Bruce didn't answer him. He only looked at me.
"Are we done here, Mrs. Garrison?"
"I'm keeping Goodall," I said. "But yes. We're done."
Bruce opened the truck door for me and held the train out of the way while I climbed in.
Behind us, Whitney took off her sunglasses and didn't look pleased.
Bruce's house sat at the end of a long gravel drive in Worthington, behind a row of bare maples.
It was brick, two stories, with a wide porch and a swing on one end.
A fat beagle came down the porch steps at a walk, sniffed my hem and sat on my foot.
"That's Biscuit," Bruce said. "She's welcoming you."
"She's sitting on me."
"That's how she does it."
He showed me the house in four minutes.
The kitchen had a scarred table with a mug ring on it.
The living room had one lamp, and the study had a wall of books.
Upstairs there were two bedrooms on opposite sides of the hall.
"Mine's at the back," Bruce said. "Yours is this one. It has a lock."
He pointed down the hall.
"There's a bathroom between them, so knock."
The bed in my room was made.
A folded towel lay on it, with a toothbrush still in its box.
"You bought this today?"
"I bought it two years ago for guests," he said. "It was in the closet. I'm not that fast."
I laughed. It came out thin.
Then I sat on the edge of the bed.
My phone buzzed in the hidden pocket of my dress, and I took it out.
The video had been posted at two fifteen.
It had four hundred thousand views.
The title was "Bride takes ring back from the ex in front of everyone."
I read the first comment.
"Her face when she walks out. I would have thrown the bouquet."
The second one said, "Who is the man in the last pew standing up?"
I put the phone face down on the quilt.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asked from the doorway.
"I'm fine. I can't reach the pins."
He waited.
There were eighteen of them.
Kelsey had put them in that morning, one at a time, humming to herself.
I couldn't feel the back of my own head.
"Rule says no touching unless someone's watching," I said.
Biscuit had followed us up. She sat in the doorway and stared at us.
"She's watching," Bruce said.
"She's a dog."
"She's a witness."
I turned my back to him and sat very still.
He came over, and his hands were careful.
He found the first pin by touch and drew it out slowly.
The veil loosened a little at a time.
His knuckle brushed the back of my neck. I felt it down my spine.
He stopped.
"Sorry."
"It's fine."
"It's not a thing you have to say is fine," Bruce said quietly.
He went on, one pin after another, and did not hurry.
Neither of us said a word.
When the veil came off in his hands, I could feel where his breath had been.
"Thank you."
"Anytime."
"That wasn't a rule."
"I know," Bruce said, and left the room before I could look at his face.
I sat on the bed with the veil in my lap and listened to him go down the stairs.
My phone buzzed again.
It was the banking app.
I had opened it to look at nothing. I wanted to see my own name on something.
The house account showed a transfer, and I read it twice.
Withdrawal, 4:12 p.m. Balance: $0.00.
At 4:12 I had been standing in a judge's office, saying yes to another man.
Travis had been at the bank, taking my forty-one thousand dollars out.
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