Chapter 3 - Before the Toast
Vanessa’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Ryan looked at Maya. “Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know why she wanted Clara gone?”
Maya shook her head. “She only said Clara could not be in the room when Mrs. Bennett gave her toast.”
Grandma’s hand tightened around her purse.
“My toast?”
Vanessa recovered fast.
“This is ridiculous. I was trying to avoid drama.”
I almost laughed.
Ryan didn’t.
“What drama?”
Vanessa pointed at me. “Her.”
The old move.
I had seen it since we were teenagers. Vanessa would make a cut, wait for me to bleed, then call me unstable for staining the carpet.
This time I didn’t help her.
I said nothing.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “She hasn’t said a word.”
“Exactly. She does that thing where she stands there looking hurt so everyone takes her side.”
Grandma stepped between us.
“Enough.”
Vanessa’s face hardened. “You always choose her.”
“I choose the person being mistreated.”
“Oh, please.”
Grandma’s expression changed.
Not angry. Tired.
“Vanessa, did you think removing Clara from the room would change what I planned to say?”
The bride went still.
Ryan caught it.
“So there is something.”
Grandma looked at me.
That frightened me more than Vanessa’s anger.
Three days earlier, I had shown Grandma a bank statement she had never seen. Eighty-six thousand four hundred dollars had been wired from one of her investment accounts to a company called Bellweather Events.
Bellweather was not the wedding planner.
It was a consulting company registered six months earlier.
Its mailing address belonged to Diane.
I had promised Grandma I would not bring it up during the wedding weekend unless she wanted me to.
Now she reached into her handbag.
Vanessa whispered, “Don’t.”
Grandma pulled out a cream envelope.
Ryan looked from the envelope to his wife.
“What is that?”
Vanessa moved toward Grandma.
I stepped in front of her.
For once, she stopped when I did.
Grandma slid one finger under the flap.
“I was going to make a family announcement after dinner,” she said. “But apparently my granddaughter worked very hard to make sure Clara wouldn’t hear it.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with panic.
Then the ballroom doors opened behind us.
May you like
My father, Thomas, walked in with Diane at his side.
Diane took one look at the envelope and whispered, “Margaret, you promised.”
