My Fiancé Stole My University Acceptance Letter novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Ring in the Glass

The Marlow Falls Country Club had one ballroom, and every chair in it was full.

I walked in at ten past seven in my work boots and my bus coat, with the cut envelope in my hand.

My mother caught me at the door with a garment bag over her arm.

"Ciara, the blue dress. Please. Five minutes in the ladies' room."

"No."

"It's a party for you."

"It's a trap for me," I said. "I'll wear what I've got."

She looked at my boots and, for the first time in my life, she didn't argue.

Forty-two people sat at round tables under the chandelier.

I knew all of them.

The mayor and his wife.

The minister's wife, in a lavender jacket.

The editor of the Marlow Falls Courier, with a notebook already open beside his water glass.

Harriet sat at the head table with her cane across her knees.

Brendan stood beside her in a gray suit with a small velvet box in his hand.

When he saw me, he smiled wide.

"There she is," he said. "Our girl."

People clapped.

Lena was at the back table by the kitchen door, and she lifted a hand and mouthed, Are you okay?

I nodded.

Harriet struck her glass with a spoon.

"Friends," she said. "Thank you for coming. It is with great pleasure that I announce the engagement of my grandson Brendan Sutcliffe to Ciara Keogh, daughter of our own Marlow Falls. The wedding will take place on the tenth of June."

The room rose in a wave of applause.

Brendan opened the box.

The ring was an old one, a square sapphire in a band of tiny diamonds, and I knew it well.

I had worn it for sixty years.

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