Chapter 2
I did not sleep after I sent the form.
I sat at my kitchen table, staring at the confirmation until the words blurred. Part of me felt calm. Another part kept imagining Ethan’s face when he found out.
Ethan had never asked me to hide. He also believed the venue was a gift from me to both of them.
I owed him the truth before Vanessa invented a reason.
At seven the next morning, I called him.
He answered on the third ring, his voice rough with sleep.
“Claire? Is everything okay?”
“The reception venue is canceled,” I said.
He went silent.
“I canceled it last night. The contract is in my name, and I paid for it. I’m calling because you should hear it from me.”
“What happened?”
I told him exactly what Vanessa and Mom had said at my door. I repeated the part about the photographer. I told him Vanessa had planned to have me leave after the ceremony.
Ethan did not interrupt.
When I finished, he said, “She told me you weren’t coming because you didn’t feel comfortable being photographed.”
“No.”
“She said the crowd might overwhelm you.”
“I’ve attended crowded events for years.”
“I know,” he said. “I should have called you.”
I heard a door close on his end of the line.
“Are you with her?” I asked.
“She’s in the shower. I stepped outside.”
“I’m sorry you’re hearing about the hall this way. You didn’t do this to me.”
“No,” he said, “but I let her tell me what you wanted instead of asking.”
I did not know what to say to that.
“Can you send me what the venue told you?” he asked.
“I’ll forward the confirmation and the contract. Lena can answer questions about what might still be possible.”
“Thank you.”
After we hung up, I sent him the documents. Then I called the florist and the cake shop. I had signed both contracts, too.
The florist could still provide flowers at another location. The cake shop could deliver the cake wherever the couple requested. I told them to wait for instructions from Ethan or Vanessa and that I would honor what I had already paid.
I did not want the people who had worked on the wedding to suffer because my family had been cruel.
At ten, Vanessa called.
“Tell me Ethan misunderstood,” she said.
“He understood.”
“You canceled my wedding.”
“I canceled the reception hall I paid for. The ceremony is still booked under your names.”
“You knew we couldn’t get another place this late.”
“I knew you could not pay for Willowmere without me.”
Her breath caught.
Mom came onto the line. “Claire, you’ve made your point. Call the woman back and fix it.”
I looked at Lena’s confirmation. It said the date had been released.
“The cancellation is complete.”
“Then ask them to undo it,” Mom said.
“I’m not paying for a reception where I’m told to leave before the photographs.”
Vanessa’s voice rose. “I said you could stay until after dinner.”
“You said I could come to the ceremony. You told me to go home afterward.”
“That was before I knew you’d be this vindictive.”
I held the phone away from my ear for a moment.
I had expected anger. I had not expected her to rewrite what she had said less than twelve hours earlier.
“Ethan heard my account,” I said. “You can tell him yours.”
I ended the call.
By lunchtime, relatives were texting me. Some had heard I canceled the wedding because Vanessa asked me not to wear a certain dress. Others thought I had demanded to be in every photograph.
Renee, our aunt, called instead of texting.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said.
I told her.
She let out a long breath. “Your mother told me you were having trouble with your scars again.”
“I have trouble with what they said about them.”
“I thought so.”
Renee had visited me in the hospital after the fire. She had sat beside my bed when my face was covered and talked to me about ordinary things. When I could finally look in a mirror, she had stayed with me.
“Do you want me to call anyone?” she asked.
“Please don’t fight for me on the phone. If someone asks, you can tell them I’m all right.”
“Are you?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I’m coming over with dinner.”
At four, Lena called with an update. Another couple had been waiting for a cancellation at Willowmere. They had accepted the date.
I felt my stomach drop. I had known releasing it could be final. Hearing it made the decision real.
Lena also said the venue could credit some of my loss if the new booking covered certain costs. She would send me the figures after the weekend.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Claire, may I ask something? Would you like me to direct questions from Vanessa to her, or should they all come through you?”
“Please answer her questions about availability. Don’t discuss my payments with anyone who isn’t on the contract.”
“I won’t.”
The doorbell rang an hour later.
Ethan stood outside holding the invitation Vanessa had given him to deliver to his uncle. He looked as if he had been awake for days.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
I stepped aside.
He sat at my table and placed the invitation between us.
“She admitted what she said,” he told me. “She still thinks you should have accepted it.”
I watched him rub his eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Then he looked at me.
“She said your mother came up with the plan. But I found an email Vanessa sent the photographer two weeks ago.”
