After He Gave My Wedding Away, I Built My Empire novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Note

My father was sitting on the kitchen floor with his back against the dishwasher and his cane across his knees.

My mother stood over him with a dish towel, afraid to touch him.

"I told him to get up," she said. "He says the floor is where he belongs."

"Mom, go sit down."

"I will not."

"Then stay," I said. "But let him talk."

I crouched in front of my father, in the green skirt I had worn to the trade floor.

"Dad."

"You said you walked up the aisle and gave her the ring," he said.

"I did."

"And I was in the third row." His voice cracked. "Honey, I knew something was going to happen."

My mother's towel went still.

"What do you mean, you knew?"

"Three weeks before the wedding, Rowena came to see me alone. She said Colin wanted to do something special at the ceremony, a surprise for Cassandra, and I should keep your mother seated and calm."

"A surprise," I said.

"I thought flowers. A song." He rubbed his face. "She said if I told anyone, the gift would be spoiled. I said yes because she'd paid for my heart pills, and I didn't want to be ungrateful."

"You didn't know," I said.

"I should have asked what kind." He looked up, and he was crying openly. "I let her put you in that car."

I put my arms around him on the linoleum.

He was so light that I had to catch my breath.

My mother made a small sound.

When I looked up, she was holding the dish towel against her mouth.

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