Chương 4
“And?”
“Serena said this was supposed to be the day she became your family, not the day she competed with someone who wasn’t alive.”
Claire finally drank from the bottle.
Daniel’s eyes closed.
For several seconds the suite held only the hum of the air conditioner and a commercial playing silently on the television.
Anna watched her brother’s face. There had always been a place in it she could not enter when he was angry. As a boy he had used silence to survive their father’s absences, their mother’s exhaustion, bills left unopened on the counter. As an adult he had polished that silence until people mistook it for calm.
“Did you know she felt that way?” Anna asked.
“No.”
“Maybe you should have.”
Claire looked at her sharply.
Anna lowered the cold pack. “I’m not saying what she did was okay.”
“It wasn’t,” Daniel said.
“I know. But she didn’t invent the feeling this morning.”
Daniel sat again.
“Are you defending her?”
“No. I’m trying not to make this simple because simple means you do something huge in the next ten minutes and spend ten years wondering whether you understood it.”
His expression shifted, irritation mixing with reluctant recognition.
“That sounded like Mom,” he said.
“She said it to you first.”
“She said it every time I wanted to quit something.”
“She said it when you wanted to marry Kayla after three months.”
Claire raised her hand slightly. “Who is Kayla?”
“Not relevant,” Daniel and Anna said together.
The old rhythm between them appeared so briefly that all three felt it. Daniel looked down. Anna pressed the cold pack back to her wrist.
A knock sounded.
Marisol entered after Daniel answered. Her professional composure had tightened around her.
“We need a decision about the ceremony delay announcement,” she said. “Guests have been told there is a private family matter. The quartet can extend by thirty minutes. Catering can hold the first course for approximately an hour before quality becomes an issue.”
Daniel glanced at the clock.
Twenty-two minutes had passed since Serena grabbed Anna.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“In the bridal suite with her parents and maid of honor.”
“Has she asked to see Anna?”
Marisol hesitated. “She has asked to see you.”
Daniel looked at his sister.
Anna shook her head. “Don’t use me to avoid talking to her.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were about to.”
He almost argued, then stopped.
Marisol shifted the tablet against her chest. “I’m sorry, but I also need to tell you that at least two guests recorded part of what happened. Hotel security has asked them not to post anything, but we can’t control personal devices.”
Daniel stood.
Anna’s stomach tightened. “Who recorded?”
“I don’t know. One may have been a guest near the back wall. Another person was in the corridor when the doors were open.”
Claire said, “So this can become public before they decide whether they’re married.”
Marisol’s expression conveyed that it probably already had.
Daniel held out his hand for Anna’s phone. “Call Serena.”
“From mine?”
“I left mine downstairs.”
Anna searched Serena’s name and handed it to him.
Serena answered immediately. “Daniel?”
“I’m in the family suite.”
“I know. Marisol told me.”
“I’m coming down to talk.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“Are we getting married?”
Daniel looked at Anna, though the question was not hers to answer.
“I don’t know.”
Serena inhaled unsteadily. “You keep saying that as if it’s neutral.”
“It isn’t.”
“Daniel, people are recording us.”
“I know.”
“My father says someone has already sent a clip to a group chat.”
“I know.”
“You need to tell your family to stop spreading this.”
“My family didn’t grab Anna.”
“You think that means they won’t enjoy watching me be humiliated?”
Daniel’s face hardened. “I’ll be downstairs in five minutes.”
He ended the call.
Anna took back her phone.
Claire said, “That conversation went badly.”
“It was thirty seconds.”
“Some people are efficient.”
Daniel adjusted his cuffs, then seemed to notice what he was doing and let his hands drop.
“Stay here,” he told Anna.
“I wasn’t planning to chase you.”
“Lock the door.”
“Daniel.”
He looked at her.
She wanted to tell him not to cancel. She wanted to tell him Serena had frightened her. She wanted to tell him that both statements could be true without one erasing the other.
What came out was, “Don’t ask whether she loves you.”
He frowned.
“She’ll say yes. She probably does. Ask what she thinks love permits.”
Daniel remained still.
Then he nodded once and left.
The bridal suite smelled of roses, hairspray, and the untouched lunch someone had ordered at noon. Serena stood by the long mirror while her maid of honor, Camille, removed pins from a flower arrangement that had begun to lean.
Serena’s parents sat near the window. Her father, Martin Rourke, had taken off his jacket. Her mother, Evelyn, held a tissue without using it.
Daniel entered alone.
Serena’s eyes moved behind him. “Where’s Anna?”
“Upstairs.”
“Is she all right?”
“She has bruising. Nothing is broken.”
Relief crossed Serena’s face before caution replaced it. “Good.”
Daniel closed the door.
Martin stood. “We should all take a breath.”
“I need to speak to Serena privately.”
“You can speak in front of us,” Martin said.
Serena looked at her father. “Please.”
He did not move.
“Dad.”
Martin picked up his jacket. Evelyn rose more slowly. At the door, she touched Daniel’s arm.
“She’s been under enormous strain,” she said.
Daniel looked down at her hand.
Evelyn withdrew it.
When the others had gone, Serena crossed her arms beneath the draped neckline of her gown. The posture made the satin crease.
“I know what you think you saw,” she said.
“I saw your hand on my sister.”
“You came in at the worst possible second.”
“What would the better second have looked like?”
“The thirty seconds before that, when I repeatedly asked her to stop.”
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“You asked her last week if she had practiced.”
Serena did not speak.
