Chapter 2 - THE BRIDE HAD AN ANSWER READY
For ten long seconds, nobody spoke.
Paige recovered first. “Ryan, you misunderstood. I meant she needed to sit down. She's been pushing herself all day.”
“Mom was standing still,” he said.
“You didn't see what happened.”
“Then tell me exactly what happened.”
Paige glanced at her father, Graham Weller, who was already coming toward us with the confident stride of a man used to making problems disappear.
“This can be handled privately,” Graham said. “There's a physician staying at the hotel. We don't need an ambulance creating a spectacle.”
“My mother needs a hospital,” Ryan answered.
Graham's pleasant expression cooled. “You married into this family twenty minutes ago, son. Think carefully about how the evening looks.”
“I'm thinking about her arm.”
Ryan took my left hand. I was shaking too hard to hide it.
In the ambulance he kept apologizing, although he hadn't touched me. I wanted to say what mothers usually say: It's okay, honey. Instead I asked him a question.
“Did Paige tell you I got a letter this morning?”
“What letter?”
“About Cedar Point.”
He frowned. Cedar Point was the little piece of lakeshore his father had left me, the place where Ryan learned to swim and where we scattered Thomas's ashes.
Before I could explain, pain flooded my shoulder. The paramedic adjusted the support and asked me to keep breathing.
At the hospital, imaging showed a new tear around the old injury. The doctor ordered a specialist evaluation and warned that recovery could take months.
Ryan looked sick. “She knew you couldn't use that arm.”
“Yes.”
His phone kept lighting up: PAIGE, PAIGE, PAIGE. Finally he silenced it.
May you like
Then mine buzzed. A message from an unknown number showed a photograph of my open handbag on the wedding reception table.
Under it were seven words: WHERE DID YOU PUT THE BLUE ENVELOPE?
