Chapter 2 - Emily Thought the Wedding Meant Goodbye
The ceremony did not continue.
Adrian stood and asked the priest for ten minutes.
Rebecca objected immediately.
Not loudly.
That would have looked wrong in front of two hundred guests.
She stepped closer and lowered her voice.
“Adrian, she’s overwhelmed. This is exactly what we discussed.”
“No.”
Rebecca blinked.
“What?”
“We discussed that Emily might be emotional.”
“Yes.”
“We did not discuss her being told she had to leave me.”
Rebecca looked toward the note.
“It’s not what it sounds like.”
Adrian folded it carefully.
“Then tell me what it sounds like.”
She glanced toward the guests.
“Not here.”
That was the first thing she said that made sense.
Adrian agreed.
Not because he trusted her.
Because Emily was still crying.
He took his daughter into a small side chapel connected to the nave. Emily’s longtime nanny, Rosa, joined them only after Adrian personally asked her.
Rebecca remained outside.
Adrian sat beside Emily on a wooden bench.
“Where did Rebecca say you were going?”
Emily wiped her face.
“To the quiet house.”
Adrian frowned.
“What quiet house?”
“The one with the horses.”
His stomach tightened.
Rebecca’s sister owned a rural property three hours away.
Emily had visited once.
“What did she say would happen there?”
“That I stay.”
“For how long?”
Emily whispered:
“Forever.”
Rosa covered her mouth.
Adrian forced himself to remain calm.
“What exactly did Rebecca tell you?”
Emily thought carefully.
Not a rehearsed answer.
A child assembling memory.
“She said after you marry her, we’re a new family. She said big girls don’t make their daddy choose. She said you’ll be busy with her and the new house.”
Adrian’s heart began pounding.
“What new house?”
Emily looked confused.
“The one you’re moving to.”
He was not moving.
The plan after the wedding was to return to the same home where Emily had lived since she was born.
Rebecca had her own apartment, but they had agreed to transition slowly because Adrian did not want Emily’s life overturned all at once.
“What else?”
Emily looked toward the chapel door.
“She said I make you sad because I look like Mommy.”
Adrian stopped breathing for a second.
Emily’s mother, Claire, had died four years earlier.
Adrian had never said that.
Not once.
Emily resembled Claire.
He loved that.
It hurt sometimes.
That was different.
“Did Rebecca say I told her that?”
Emily nodded.
“Yes.”
Something cold settled into Adrian’s chest.
Rebecca had not simply threatened to send Emily away.
She had used his grief as authority.
He looked down at the note again.
At the bottom, Rebecca had written:
Rosa will take you after the photographs. Be brave for Daddy. He needs this.
Rosa stared at it.
“I was never told to take Emily anywhere.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
“Never?”
“Never.”
That changed the note again.
May you like
Rebecca had used the nanny’s name without involving the nanny.
Meaning the destination, the timing, and perhaps the entire departure existed only inside the story she gave Emily.
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