Poisoned by His Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Swap Back

"The real bride," Sandro said, and looked at Savannah as if she were a delivery.

Savannah stepped forward on the gravel in heels she couldn't walk in.

"I made a mistake," she said, in her sweetest voice. "I was scared. Mom explained everything."

"Did she?"

"I'm ready now. I'll do it properly."

She put a hand on his sleeve.

I got out of the car and stood on the drive.

I did not say a word, because there was nothing I could say that would not come out as a scream.

Sandro walked past Savannah's hand.

"Inside," he said. "All of you. I don't discuss my marriage on the gravel."

The front hall had a black-and-white floor and a staircase wide enough for a parade.

Cora stood in the middle of it.

"Let's be adults," she said. "A wedding is a contract. The contract named my daughter. Ivy stood in as a courtesy, and I thank her."

She looked at me, and her smile did not reach her eyes.

"Sweetheart, you've been such a help. Go home now. Your father is missing you."

I felt Gianna go stiff on my left.

It was an exit.

For one dizzy second, it was the door I had been praying for since the church.

"Say that again," I said.

"It's very simple, Ivy. Savannah is the wife. We can annul it and no one has to say anything."

"Savannah ran."

"She panicked."

"She left a note in lipstick and went to a bar."

"Ivy," Savannah whined. "Don't."

"She left me alone in that room with a dress and a threat."

"Which you accepted," Cora said, "very nicely."

"I accepted it for Dad. You looked me in the eye and said it."

I turned to Sandro.

He was standing with his hands in his pockets, watching me, saying nothing.

I understood he was waiting to see what I would do with an open door.

I did not like what I found when I looked inside myself.

"I signed the register," I said slowly. "I said the words in front of three hundred people, and I wore the ring."

"You're finished," Cora said, and lifted her hand.

She had picked up a wineglass from the hall table, one of the guests' leftovers.

She flung it.

Red wine hit me in the face and ran down the front of my blouse.

For a second nobody breathed.

I didn't think.

I stepped forward and slapped her across the face, hard enough to turn her head.

The crack rang up the staircase.

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