Chapter 1: Stop the Wedding
David stood.
Outside the dressing room, someone laughed.
A photographer called for the bridesmaids. A violinist tested three bright notes in the hallway. Somewhere downstairs, the wedding coordinator was counting down the minutes until the doors opened.
Ten minutes.
That was all the time left before David was supposed to walk to the altar and marry the woman standing in front of him.
He looked at Sophie.
Her chin trembled.
Lauren folded her arms.
“David, this is getting blown completely out of proportion.””
He stared at the locket in his palm.
“It broke.””
“It’s a chain,” Lauren said.
“Chains break.””
Sophie’s eyes dropped.
Lauren noticed and softened her voice.
“Sophie, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to hurt you.””
Sophie said nothing.
David crouched in front of her.
“Did Lauren hurt you?””
A tiny shake of the head.
“Did she scare you?””
Another pause.
Then Sophie nodded.
Lauren’s expression tightened.
“David.””
He ignored her.
“What happened?””
Sophie looked at Lauren.
Lauren smiled.
It was the smile David had seen her use with waiters when they brought the wrong wine.
“Nothing happened,” Lauren said.
“She was upset because I told her the necklace wasn’t appropriate for the ceremony.””
Sophie whispered, “Mom gave it to me.””
Lauren’s jaw shifted.
“Anna gave it to you years ago.””
Sophie hugged herself.
“She said I could wear it today.””
David slowly stood.
Anna.
His wife.
Sophie’s mother.
Dead for four years.
The locket had been the one thing Sophie had asked to keep close ever since the funeral. She slept with it under her pillow when nightmares came. She wore it on the first day of school. She carried it inside her backpack during doctor's appointments.
And today, on the morning she was supposed to see her father get married, she had worn it around her neck because Anna had once promised her that she would always be with her on big days.
David had almost cried when he saw it earlier.
Lauren had apparently seen something else.
An inconvenience.
“I told you yesterday,” Lauren said.
“Everything has to look perfect.””
David looked at her.
“Perfect?””
“Yes.””
“You broke her necklace because it didn’t match the dress?””
Lauren scoffed.
“I did not break it on purpose.””
Sophie flinched.
That was the moment something inside David went cold.
Not because of the locket.
Because Sophie had flinched at her voice.
He had known that movement once.
Years ago, when Anna was alive, Sophie had never flinched around anyone.
Not even strangers.
But after Anna died, there had been one nightmare after another. She would wake crying, crawl into David’s bed, and whisper that she had dreamed her mother was calling her from a room she couldn't open.
Anna had been the safe place.
David had promised himself that whoever entered his daughter’s life next would understand that.
Lauren had promised she did.
“I love Sophie,” Lauren said quietly.
“You know that.””
David looked at her.
“I thought you did.””
Her face changed.
“What is that supposed to mean?””
“It means I just watched you move her mother’s necklace across a room with your shoe.””
“I moved it because she was grabbing for it.””
“After you held it over her head.””
“She was misbehaving.””
“She’s eight.””
“She needs boundaries.””
David looked down at Sophie.
Her little white flower-girl shoes were perfectly polished.
Her hands were shaking.
“Go find Aunt Maya,” he said.
Sophie looked up.
“Now?””
“Yes.””
“But the wedding…”
“The wedding can wait.””
Lauren stepped forward.
“No.””
David turned.
“No?””
“No. David, you're emotional right now. We have two hundred people downstairs.””
He stared at her.
Lauren lowered her voice.
“Your daughter is upset. Fine. Give her five minutes. Then we finish this.””
David gave a humorless laugh.
“Finish what?””
“The wedding.””
He held up the broken necklace.
“This?””
“No.””
He pointed toward the dress.
“This?””
“No.””
He looked directly into her eyes.
“This.””
Lauren’s face went still.
“Don’t do this here.””
“Where should I do it?””
“David.””
“Where should I ask why my daughter is afraid of you?””
Lauren’s lips parted.
Sophie looked between them.
For one second, nobody spoke.
Then the dressing-room door opened.
Maya stood there.
She took one look at Sophie’s face.
Then at the broken necklace.
Then at Lauren.
Her expression hardened.
“What happened?””
Lauren answered immediately.
“Nothing.””
Maya walked straight to Sophie.
“Come here, sweetheart.””
Sophie crossed the room and buried herself against her aunt.
Maya looked over Sophie’s head.
“David?””
He handed her the locket.
Maya recognized it instantly.
“Oh, Anna’s.””
David nodded.
Maya’s fingers closed around it.
“She gave this to Sophie the summer before…”
She stopped.
Her eyes lifted to Lauren.
“You knew what this was.””
Lauren’s expression flickered.
“Of course I knew.””
“Then why did you break it?””
“I didn’t break it.””
David said, “It snapped when she tried to take it back.””
Lauren's face flushed.
“This is ridiculous.””
Maya stared at her.
“You’re right.””
Lauren blinked.
“This is a ridiculous conversation to be having on your wedding day.””
Maya's voice became quieter.
“Because this should have been the day you became part of this family.””
Lauren looked at David.
“He knows I love him.””
Maya didn’t answer.
Lauren took another step toward David.
“Tell her.””
David said nothing.
“David.””
He felt the silence around them.
The hallway sounds seemed farther away now.
Then someone knocked.
A man's voice came through the door.
“David? Five minutes.””
No one moved.
Lauren closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she was no longer angry.
She looked scared.
Only for a second.
But David saw it.
And suddenly, an old memory surfaced.
Three months earlier.
He had come home early from work and found Lauren standing in his study with one of Anna’s old boxes open on the floor.
When he had asked what she was doing, she had smiled and said she was “organizing.””
He had believed her.
Now he remembered something else.
One of the envelopes in that box had been missing.
An envelope with Anna’s handwriting on it.
David looked at Lauren.
“Where is it?””
She frowned.
“Where is what?””
“Anna’s envelope.””
Lauren went pale.
Maya noticed.
“What envelope?””
David didn't take his eyes off Lauren.
“The one from the study.””
Lauren shook her head.
“I don't know what you're talking about.””
“Yes, you do.””
“I swear, David—”
“You opened her box.””
Lauren’s voice rose.
“I was cleaning!””
“You lied to me.””
“Because you were obsessed with a dead woman!””
The words hit the room like a slap.
Sophie lifted her head.
Maya froze.
David stared at Lauren.
Lauren immediately covered her mouth.
The color drained from her face.
“I didn’t mean…”
David whispered, “Say that again.””
She shook her head.
“David, please.””
“No.””
“Please.””
“You called my wife a dead woman like she was an inconvenience.””
“I was angry.””
“You were telling the truth.””
Lauren stepped closer.
“You don’t understand what it’s like living in a marriage with someone who is still halfway in love with the person he lost.””
David felt his throat tighten.
“I never compared you to Anna.””
“You didn’t have to.””
Lauren wiped at her eyes.
“I knew I could never win.””
David stared at her.
“And Sophie?””
Lauren looked toward the little girl.
“What about her?””
“You wanted her to win too?””
Lauren’s silence answered for her.
Maya whispered, “David…”
He looked down at the locket.
There was something caught beneath the broken clasp.
A thin strip of folded paper.
His heart stopped.
He carefully pulled it free.
Lauren moved instantly.
“Don’t.””
David looked at her.
That single word was enough.
He unfolded the paper.
It was old.
Yellow at the edges.
Anna’s handwriting covered the front.
David knew it before he read the first line.
His hands began to shake.
Maya stepped closer.
“What does it say?””
David looked at Lauren.
Her face had gone completely white.
Then he read the first sentence.
“If David is reading this, it means I didn’t get the chance to tell him the truth.””
Silence.
Downstairs, the wedding music began.
David kept reading.
His eyes stopped on the next line.
And for the first time that morning, he understood why Lauren had been so desperate to keep the locket away from Sophie.
Because the letter contained one name.
A name David had spent four years believing was impossible.
Lauren whispered, “David, please don’t open that.””
He looked at the door.
Then at his daughter.
Then back at the letter.
May you like
“Stop the wedding,” he said.
And somewhere downstairs, the church doors opened.