Chương 2
“I know. I’m not going to pull.”
“You always say that before you pull.”
Under any other circumstances, Daniel might have smiled. Instead he loosened the strap of her remaining shoe and found a raw blister under her heel. The missing shoe, she told him, had fallen off near the kitchen. Ethan had wanted to go back for it, but a man kept following them.
Ron, apparently.
Daniel looked at his son. “Tell me what happened. Start wherever you can.”
Ethan’s eyes flicked to the locked door.
“Is she coming in?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Daniel had told his children many things with more confidence than the future deserved. Your mother will be fine. The doctor knows what he’s doing. I’ll be home before bedtime. Claire loves both of you. He could feel those sentences crowded behind his teeth.
“I will not let her come in,” he said.
Ethan stared at him for another moment before speaking.
The children had arrived at Waverly Hall with Daniel’s cousin Peter, who had been assigned to bring them from Nora’s house after lunch. Their clothes had been laid out, their roles rehearsed, their photographs discussed. Ethan was supposed to stand beside Daniel during the family portraits. Lily had spent three weeks practicing how to scatter petals without throwing the basket.
When they reached the bridal corridor, Claire’s assistant, Brooke, met them near the staircase.
“She said the schedule changed,” Ethan said. “She said we should wait by the back rooms until Aunt Nora came.”
Nora frowned. “I was in the ceremony room the whole time.”
“I told her that.”
“What did Brooke say?”
“She said you knew.”
Daniel unfolded the note again. “When did you get this?”
“Claire came out.”
“She spoke to you directly?”
Ethan nodded. His jaw tightened before the rest came out. “She was mad because Lily had juice.”
“I had apple,” Lily said against Daniel’s shirt.
“There wasn’t any on her dress,” Ethan continued. “Claire checked. Then she said the pictures were already late and the photographer needed to do her family first. I said we were her family too.”
Nora turned away and pressed her knuckles against her mouth.
“What did Claire say?” Daniel asked.
Ethan’s face changed. He was nine years old, but humiliation aged him for a second.
“She said, ‘Not today, Ethan.’”
Lily raised her head. “She said we make things complicated.”
Daniel looked down at the silver ring on his hand. Claire had held it between two manicured fingers fifteen minutes earlier. Her hands had not shaken then.
“Then she wrote the note,” Ethan said. “She gave it to Brooke and told her to take us through the back. Brooke gave it to the guard. Lily grabbed it because she thought it was for you.”
“It had Dad’s name,” Lily said.
The paper did not have Daniel’s name anywhere on it.
He did not correct her.
“What happened after that?” Nora asked.
“Brooke took us downstairs. She said somebody would drive us home. Then her phone rang, and she went back up. The guard told us we had to wait outside the kitchen because guests couldn’t see us. Lily started crying.”
“I did not.”
“You did a little.”
“My shoe hurt.”
Ethan rubbed his forearm across his nose. “The guard opened the service door. I thought he was making us leave. I picked her up. Then I saw the big gold doors around the corner.”
“So you ran,” Daniel said.
Ethan shook his head. “I tried. She’s heavy.”
Lily frowned at him. “I am four.”
Nora made a small, broken sound that might have become a laugh in a kinder room.
Daniel took out his phone and called Peter. The call went to voicemail. He tried again. On the third attempt, Peter answered over the noise of the reception hall.
“Daniel, I’m trying to figure out what the hell—”
“You brought the kids here. Who did you hand them to?”
“Brooke. Claire’s assistant. She was waiting at the entrance.”
“Did you see Nora?”
“No. Brooke said they were behind schedule and told me she’d take them. I had to move the car because a shuttle was blocked.”
“Then you left?”
“I thought they were with the wedding party.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Peter’s voice dropped. “I’m sorry.”
“Find Lily’s shoe. Then come to the bridal suite.”
He ended the call before Peter could answer.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Daniel,” Claire said from the hallway. “Please.”
Lily stiffened.
Nora pointed toward the bathroom. “I can take them in there.”
“No,” Ethan said quickly.
Daniel stood. His knees felt unreliable, so he rested one hand on the back of the bench.
“You stay with them,” he told Nora.
He stepped into the hall and pulled the door shut behind him.
Claire stood alone. Judith waited several yards away with a man Daniel recognized as the Hart family attorney, though he had not been introduced that afternoon in that capacity. Claire’s veil had been removed. Without it, her polished updo looked severe.
She reached toward Daniel, then stopped when she saw his expression.
“I need you to understand what I meant.”
“You wrote the note.”
“Yes.”
“You told someone to take my children through the back.”
“I told Brooke to bring them to the family lounge until the Hart photographs were finished.”
“The note says they must not appear in the family photographs.”
“My family photographs. My mother, my aunts, my cousins. That group.”
“You wrote ‘the family photographs.’”
“I was rushing.”
“You said they would ruin them.”
Claire’s lips parted.
Daniel watched the answer arrive before she gave it.
“I said the timing would be ruined,” she replied.
“My son heard you.”
“Your son was upset.”
The door behind Daniel opened. Ethan stood in the gap, one hand wrapped around the brass knob.
“I wasn’t upset until you said it.”
Claire’s face tightened. “Ethan, this is an adult conversation.”
May you like
Daniel stepped between them.
“No. It stopped being an adult conversation when you put children out a service door.”
