Oops, Wrong Bride? Fine. No Wedding. novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Since Sixteen

The bakery was so quiet I could hear the walk-in cooler humming in the back.

I looked at Shelby.

She'd lowered her phone to her chest, but it was still recording. The little red dot was still on.

Platinum hair. Blue eyes.

Nothing like mine.

And then I saw the chin. The little dent in the middle of it.

My father had that dent. I'd never once noticed it on her in twenty-two years.

"You're my sister," I said.

Shelby looked at me for a long moment.

Then she laughed.

She lifted the phone again and turned it toward herself, and when she spoke, her voice was the sweet one, the one for followers.

"Well," she said. "I guess the secret's out, loves. Gene Gatling is my daddy. I've known since I was sixteen."

"Sixteen," I said.

"He took me to dinner on my birthday. At Edisto." She smiled at my father. "Every year. That was the fishing trip, Liza. It was me. It was always me."

My father sat down heavily at my mother's table.

"Shelby, honey, that's enough."

"No, it isn't. I've waited eleven years to say it." She turned to me. "Do you know what it's like? Watching you get everything? The bakery. The yellow house. The pearls. The daddy who walked you to school."

"You had him too," I said. "Every September."

"One day a year." Her voice cracked for real now. "You had three hundred and sixty-four."

The bell over the door rang.

Trey came in with two iced coffees, in his loafers, and stopped dead.

"Babe? What's going on? Why is everybody staring?"

Nobody answered him.

I looked back at Shelby.

"The veil," I said. "Was that you?"

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend