Chapter 4 - The Man with the Ring Box
Thatcher called just after the surgeon finished explaining the operation. I almost let the call go unanswered. He was marrying into this family, and I had spent years watching outsiders learn to keep the peace around Sloan.
“I saw what happened,” he said. His voice sounded scraped raw. “I need to know if you're safe.”
“I'm in the hospital. It's bad.”
He swallowed audibly. “Merritt, before the rehearsal, Sloan told Bellamy to make sure she got the whole thing on camera.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said she was finally going to teach you not to steal her spotlight.”
I stared at the ceiling. It was worse hearing the words from someone who had loved her enough to plan a wedding.
“I told her you needed the elevator,” Thatcher continued. “She said the brace was ruining the photographs. I thought she was just being petty.”
“She did it on purpose.”
“I know that now.”
He'd taken his velvet ring box out during the rehearsal because he'd planned to give her a matching family wedding band after dinner. After watching her laugh over my broken leg, he'd put it back in his pocket.
“The ceremony's on hold,” he said. “I haven't decided anything else.”
I didn't ask him to leave her. That decision belonged to him. I asked him to write down exactly what he'd seen while it was still fresh.
Half an hour later, my father called.
“Cancel the card dispute,” he said without greeting me.
I sat straighter in the hospital bed. “So you admit you used my card?”
“I handled a family obligation. It will all get balanced out.”
“Forty-two thousand five hundred dollars isn't a family favor.”
He exhaled as though I were an incompetent employee. “If you ruin this wedding, you will regret it.”
May you like
Then he said something I would play back in my mind for weeks.
“Besides, your sister has a recording that makes you look much worse than she does.”
