Part 4
“You plan everything,” she had once said, standing barefoot in their kitchen while coffee burned in the pot behind her. “Except the things that matter when people are scared.”
He had told her she was unfair.
She had laughed then, but not because it was funny.
Now he wondered if she had already known something he did not.
Poppy’s fingers were still resting against his shirt.
“Did Mommy tell you I was your dad?” he asked.
The child nodded.
“She said you didn’t know.”
“Did she say why I didn’t know?”
Poppy looked at Amelie.
Then at Gabriel.
“She said grown-ups make mistakes when they are afraid.”
The answer was too old for her.
Gabriel felt it settle inside him.
Amelie leaned one shoulder against the doorframe.
“Did she say anything else?” she asked.
Poppy’s eyes filled again.
“She said not to tell people everything right away.”
“Why?”
“Because they might make you go away.”
Amelie’s face softened.
“No one is going to make you go away,” she said.
Poppy stared at her.
It was too soon for the child to believe her. Gabriel saw that. Amelie saw it too.
She did not repeat herself.
Instead, she said, “Would you like some water?”
Poppy looked at Gabriel.
He nodded.
“Would you like that?”
After a moment, she gave the smallest nod.
Amelie crossed to the tray with careful steps. The satin of her gown whispered softly over the floor. She poured water into a small glass and brought it back, stopping a few feet away.
“Gabriel can give it to you,” she said.
Poppy took the glass from his hand with both of hers.
She drank slowly.
Gabriel watched Amelie while the child drank.
The wedding dress had been designed by a woman in Paris whose name he could never remember. Amelie had spent months finding it. She had shown him a sketch one night on the sofa, pretending she did not care whether he liked it. He had told her she would look beautiful in anything.
She had rolled her eyes.
“That is not an answer.”
He had looked at the drawing again. “You’ll look like yourself,” he said.
That had made her smile.
Now the dress seemed almost cruel in its beauty.
A promise made visible.
A promise interrupted by a child who might be his daughter.
Poppy handed the glass back.
“Can we go outside?” she asked.
Gabriel looked toward the corridor.
“Do you want to?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I want to see the flowers.”
Amelie’s face changed again.
The child had no idea what the flowers meant. To Poppy, they were probably only flowers. White and peach blossoms beneath lights. Something beautiful she had seen through the doorway before she was shut inside.
Gabriel looked at Amelie.
She took a breath.
“Yes,” she said. “We can go outside.”
The walk back to the courtyard lasted less than a minute.
It felt longer.
Gabriel carried Poppy against his chest. Amelie walked beside him, close enough that he could hear the soft movement of her skirt, but not touching him. The corridor opened into the sunset-lit ceremony space, and every guest turned.
No one spoke.
The rows of elegant chairs stood exactly as they had minutes earlier. Programs rested on seats. Champagne glasses caught the gold light. The floral arch remained at the far end of the pale stone aisle, still waiting for the couple who had been meant to stand beneath it.
The silence was not kind.
It was not cruel either.
It was simply public.
Gabriel understood public silence. He had grown up with it. People watched to decide which version of an event they were allowed to repeat later. Some watched with concern. Some watched because they were frightened of becoming involved. Some watched because the disruption had given them a story.
Poppy lifted her face from his shoulder.
“So many people,” she whispered.
Gabriel tightened his hold on her.
“They’re just guests.”
“Are they mad?”
“No.”
He did not know whether that was true.
Amelie stepped closer to the child.
“They’re surprised,” she said. “That’s different from being mad.”
Poppy looked at her.
“Are you surprised?”
Amelie’s mouth trembled slightly.
“Yes.”
“Are you mad?”
For a moment, Gabriel thought Amelie might not answer.
Then she looked directly at Poppy.
“I’m sad,” she said. “But I’m not mad at you.”
The child studied her face.
Gabriel watched Amelie say it and felt something inside him split open.
May you like
She had every reason to be angry. She had been standing beneath a wedding arch. She had been waiting for him. Her friends and family had watched him walk away. She had been made into a possible villain by a frightened child who had never met her.
Still, she had not made Poppy pay for any of it.
