Chapter 4 - THE TOAST THAT BROKE THE ROOM
Eight months later, Patricia stood across the wedding ballroom and told me not to create a scene.
Lily remained wrapped around my waist.
Ethan’s microphone lay on the floor between us.
Vanessa stared at him.
“You knew about this child?” she asked.
Ethan recovered his voice.
“She’s Ryan’s daughter. Clara became temporarily involved during a family emergency.”
“Temporarily?”
Vanessa looked at Lily.
“She just called Clara her mother.”
“She’s confused.”
Lily lifted her face.
“I’m not confused.”
The words were quiet, but the microphone on the floor caught them.
They traveled through the speakers.
Several guests turned toward Ethan.
Patricia stepped forward.
“Lily, come with me.”
Lily moved behind my dress.
“No.”
Patricia’s smile tightened.
“Your family is here.”
“She is with her family,” I said.
“You have no legal right to keep her from us.”
“That is not what the court order says.”
A murmur moved across the room.
Ethan stared at me.
“What court order?”
“The one extending my guardianship six weeks ago.”
His face lost its color.
“You never told me.”
“You stopped responding to Mara’s emails.”
“I thought the case had been resolved.”
“You thought your attorneys could bury it.”
Vanessa looked from Ethan to Patricia.
“What case?”
Before Ethan could answer, Naomi pushed through the guests near the ballroom entrance.
She wore a navy dress and held a folder against her chest.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching Lily. “The hotel manager stopped me because Patricia told security I wasn’t invited.”
Madison stepped forward.
“I invited her.”
Patricia’s expression turned cold.
“This woman has no place here.”
Naomi placed one hand on Lily’s shoulder.
“I’m Jenna’s sister.”
Vanessa blinked.
“Jenna?”
“Lily’s mother.”
Ethan bent to retrieve the microphone.
I placed my shoe over it.
“No more speeches.”
His eyes met mine.
“You came here intending to do this.”
“I came because Madison invited me.”
“You brought Lily.”
“She was a flower girl.”
“You brought Naomi.”
“She is Lily’s aunt.”
“You planned to humiliate me.”
The irony was so complete that even Madison’s husband laughed once beneath his breath.
“You took a microphone at someone else’s wedding and celebrated leaving me,” I said. “You did not need my help humiliating yourself.”
Madison removed her bouquet from the table.
“Ethan, I want you to leave.”
He turned toward her.
“This is a family matter.”
“This is my wedding.”
Patricia approached Madison.
“Your mother will be devastated when she hears how you treated us.”
“My mother is standing ten feet away.”
Madison’s mother raised her chin.
“I think you should go too, Patricia.”
For the first time that evening, Patricia looked uncertain.
Vanessa pulled her hand from Ethan’s arm.
“Why didn’t you tell me Clara was raising a child connected to your family?”
“It was complicated.”
“Was Jenna dead?”
Ethan said nothing.
“Because you told me she died before Clara became involved.”
“She was not expected to recover.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Naomi opened the folder.
“My sister was conscious when Ethan became engaged to you.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“When did you become engaged?” I asked.
“Six months ago.”
At the time, Ethan had still been sending me messages asking whether we could “find a civilized solution.”
He had not wanted me back.
He had wanted my signature.
Two hotel security officers entered the ballroom.
One approached Madison.
She pointed toward Ethan and Patricia.
“They’ve been asked to leave.”
Patricia looked at me.
“This is not over.”
“No,” I said. “It isn’t.”
She lowered her voice.
“You have convinced yourself that taking care of Lily makes you her mother. It doesn’t. Blood will always win.”
Naomi heard her.
“So will evidence.”
Patricia’s eyes moved to the folder.
For the first time, fear cracked through her composure.
Ethan followed his mother toward the exit.
Vanessa did not go with them.
When the doors closed, the ballroom remained silent.
I looked at Madison.
“I’m sorry.”
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me.
“You didn’t ruin my wedding.”
She glanced toward the doors.
“He ruined his invitation.”
Someone retrieved the microphone.
The band began playing again.
Conversations returned slowly.
The wedding continued, though nothing felt the same.
Lily ate half a slice of chocolate cake while sitting on my lap. Naomi stayed beside us. Madison danced with her father. Guests who had laughed at Ethan’s toast avoided looking at me.
Near midnight, Vanessa approached our table.
She had removed her engagement ring.
“I owe you an apology,” she said.
I said nothing.
“I believed what Ethan told me about you.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you had become obsessed with Lily after learning you couldn’t have children. He said you manipulated the court because you wanted to punish him.”
My throat tightened.
Ethan knew I had suffered a miscarriage two years earlier.
He knew I had spent months blaming myself.
He had turned the most painful thing I ever told him into a story he could use against me.
Vanessa placed a small silver flash drive on the table.
“What is this?”
“Copies of internal emails from Hale Ridge. Ethan asked me to delete them yesterday.”
“Why are you giving them to me?”
“Because one of them contains my name.”
She looked down at her empty hand.
“And because I finally understand why he proposed.”
“What do the emails say?”
May you like
Vanessa looked toward the ballroom entrance.
“They say the money used to buy my engagement ring came from Lily’s trust.”
