Chapter 6 - The Cost of Calling Everything Off
Canceling a wedding sounded like one decision.
It was dozens.
Daniel spent three days answering calls from vendors, relatives, the venue, and guests who had flown in from across the country.
Amanda’s parents wanted deposits returned.
Daniel told them to speak with the contracts department.
His mother wanted to know whether she should tell relatives what Amanda had done to Sophie.
Daniel said no.
Not because Amanda deserved privacy.
Because Sophie did.
A pediatrician examined Sophie the morning after the wedding.
There was no serious injury.
Daniel still felt ashamed every time he remembered leaving Sophie alone with Amanda in the bridal suite.
Amanda had insisted Daniel go downstairs to settle a seating issue.
He had been gone nine minutes.
Nine minutes.
His mother tried to reassure him.
Daniel stopped her.
“I chose her.”
“You didn’t choose that.”
“I ignored things.”
That was harder to admit.
Amanda had become impatient with Sophie during the previous two months.
Nothing Daniel had considered abusive.
A sharp tone.
Removing toys too quickly.
Complaining that Sophie disrupted wedding planning.
Once Amanda had said, “She has to learn she’s not the center of every room.”
Daniel had laughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
Now he wondered why.
He had been desperate for the wedding to mean his family had become whole again.
He had wanted normal.
So badly that he had treated discomfort as adjustment.
Amanda moved into her sister’s apartment.
Daniel changed the access code to his house.
He informed her in writing that she was not to pick Sophie up from daycare or visit without Daniel’s permission.
Amanda did not argue.
That surprised him.
Instead she sent one message.
I understand why. I’m sorry.
Then another came ten minutes later.
But you still don’t know why Laura contacted me.
Daniel stared at it.
He called Rachel.
Rachel said she had been thinking about the same thing.
Laura had not forgiven people easily once trust was broken.
If she had reached out to Amanda during the most frightening month of her life, there had been a reason.
Rachel had started searching through the boxes of Laura’s belongings stored in her attic.
The next evening she called Daniel.
“I found something.”
Not an email.
A birthday card Laura had sent Rachel shortly before surgery.
Near the bottom Laura had written:
I talked to Amanda. Maybe I waited too long. There’s something I need her to do if I don’t come home.
Daniel read the photograph of the sentence until the words stopped looking like handwriting.
Amanda had lied repeatedly.
May you like
But apparently she had also been telling the truth about one thing.
Laura had wanted something from her.
