He Married My Best Friend While I Gave Birth, So I Left novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Eight Centimeters
Lacey labors alone while her husband is the groom at her best friend's wedding, and Poppy is born as the vows are streamed. Brady texts that his mother will collect the baby and Daphne has the nursery ready.
At two o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, my husband stood at the front of a lake house lawn and waited for a bride.
I was not there to see it.
At 2:15 I was eight centimeters dilated in a delivery room at St. Brigid's, holding the bed rail with both hands.
A contraction came up from my back and wrapped around my stomach.
I could not breathe through it.
I could only hold on until it let go.
The nurse checked the empty chair beside my bed.
"Is your support person on his way?" she asked.
"He said he'd be back by four," I said.
That was what Brady had told me at breakfast.
He had kissed my forehead and said it was only Daphne's dad's retirement lunch.
He had said the induction wasn't until Monday, and that first babies take forever.
My water had broken at noon.
I had called him twice and he hadn't picked up.
Then I texted my best friend.
Daphne wrote back in under a minute: "Don't stress, just rest. I'll make sure he calls you."
I had known Daphne since sixth grade.
She had been my maid of honor.
She had asked me for my due date four times, so she could clear her schedule to be there.
I looked at the empty chair again.
The nurse said, "Is there anyone else I can call?"
I thought about it through the next contraction.
Then I texted Byron.
Byron was Brady's older brother, and he ran the family orchard forty minutes north.
He had driven me to every checkup since Brady said work kept him busy.
I wrote: "Labor. St. Brigid's. I'm sorry, I know it's far."
He wrote back one line: "On my way. Don't push without me."
It was not funny, and I laughed anyway, and then another contraction took it away.
At 2:40 my phone buzzed on the tray.
It was a notification from a stranger's livestream, tagged with a wedding hashtag, and I almost swiped it away.
Then I saw the lawn.
White folding chairs, a lake, and an arch with ivory roses.
A man stood under the arch in a navy suit.
He turned to look up the aisle, and I knew the back of his neck before I saw his face.
It was Brady.
The caption said: "Daphne and Brady, forever starts now."
I could not make a sound.
The picture swung to the aisle, and Daphne walked down it in ivory satin, smiling.
She had told me she was at a dress fitting.
She had told me not to stress.
"Ma'am?" the nurse said. "Your numbers just jumped."
I turned the phone so she could see.
She looked at the screen for a moment and set down her clipboard.
Then she took my hand and didn't say anything, and I held on to it.
Byron came through the door at 3:10 in muddy boots and a canvas jacket.
He took one look at my face and then at the phone in my fist.
"Lacey," he said quietly. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't know."
"You can say that after," I said. "Hold my other hand."
He did.
On the little screen, the officiant asked if anyone had a reason these two should not be joined.
Nobody on that lawn said a word.
I pushed for twenty-six minutes.
Brady said "I do" while I was in the middle of a push.
I heard him say it.
I heard the guests clap.
At 3:41 my daughter cried for the first time, loud and furious and alive.
The doctor laid her on my chest, and she was warm and slippery and perfect.
Byron cut the cord with his big hands shaking.
I looked at the wedding on my phone one last time.
Brady was kissing Daphne with his hand on her cheek, and the crowd was cheering.
I put the phone face down on the blanket.
A woman from the front desk came with the birth form on a clipboard.
"Baby's father?" she asked, and her pen was ready.
I looked at the little hat on my daughter's head.
"Leave it blank," I said.
"He can't be blank, honey. It's a legal form."
"Then leave it blank until I decide," I said.
I held the pen and wrote my own name in the box for the mother.
I wrote: Poppy Mercer.
At 4:20 my phone lit up with a text from Brady.
"Don't be dramatic. It's a family situation, I'll explain Monday. Mom is coming to pick up the baby tonight. Daphne already has the nursery ready."
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