Chapter 2 - I Refused To Let Her Ruin Another Marriage
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Then Nathan took my hand.
“Erin.”
I looked at him.
Not Paige.
Not the ruined cake.
Nathan.
My husband.
The man I had married less than an hour earlier.
“I’m okay,” I whispered.
I wasn’t.
But I knew exactly what I wanted.
I turned toward the guests.
“The reception continues.”
Paige stared at me.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to stand there pretending this isn’t insane?”
I looked at the cake on the floor.
“No. I’m going to stop letting your behavior decide whether I’m allowed to have a good day.”
That hurt her more than yelling would have.
Nathan asked two members of the venue staff to escort Paige outside.
She resisted verbally.
Not physically.
Before leaving, she looked at Molly.
That alone made me step forward.
“Don’t.”
Paige stopped.
For once, she listened.
After she left, I found Molly beside the floral arch.
She was trying not to cry.
“Mom?”
I crouched carefully in my wedding dress.
“What Aunt Paige said…”
“I know.”
“Did Dad leave because of me?”
My heart broke cleanly in half.
“No.”
I held her face between my hands.
“Your father leaving had nothing to do with you. Nothing.”
“Then why did she say that?”
Because Paige had always known exactly where to cut.
Because my daughter’s pain was simply another weapon if it hurt me enough.
But Molly was nine.
She did not need the adult version yet.
“Aunt Paige was angry and said something cruel.”
Nathan crouched beside us.
“And she was wrong.”
Molly looked at him.
“Are you leaving too?”
Nathan didn’t make some impossible promise about forever.
He said something better.
“I married your mom because I want this family. And if I ever have a problem, I talk about it. I don’t punish you for it.”
Molly leaned into him.
I had to look away before my makeup completely disappeared.
That evening, we cut a replacement sheet cake the venue found in the kitchen.
People danced.
Molly laughed again.
Nathan kissed me under damaged flowers.
The wedding survived.
But after our last guest left, Nathan closed the hotel-suite door and asked the question I had known was coming.
“Was Paige sleeping with Grant?”
I slowly removed one earring.
“Yes.”
Nathan stared at me.
“How long have you known?”
“Three years.”
His expression changed.
Not anger at Paige.
Not yet.
May you like
Hurt.
“You never told me.”
