I Prepared For My Wedding, Only To Be Shut Out Of My Own Bridal Suite Chapter 06

I Prepared For My Wedding, Only To Be Shut Out Of My Own Bridal Suite Chapter 06

“Dad. Mom. I’m sorry. I put you both through that.”

My father stared out the window for a long time before he answered.

“You didn’t humiliate us. Watching someone treat our girl like that and letting her marry him anyway would’ve

shamed me.”

My mother pulled me into her arms. “Maren, it’s okay. We can live without a wedding, baby. You’ll never live

without a home.”

That’s when I finally fell apart.

At home, I didn’t touch my phone, and I didn’t ask how it ended at the hotel. I changed out of my clothes,

locked my door, and slept for ten hours straight.

I woke at one in the morning, thirsty.

A small light was still on in the living room.

Dad was on the couch, the garment bag with my dress resting beside him, head bent over the speech he’d

crumpled up, carefully smoothing out the deep creases, one by one.

When he saw me, the paper disappeared behind his back. “Hey, you’re up?”

I walked over and took it from him.

His handwriting covered the page, slow and careful.

“Maren, today, I’m not giving you away to another man. I’m gaining somebody else who’ll love you like we do.”

“If he ever hurts you, don’t you ever think a wedding ring means you can’t come home.”

“Your mom and I will always be right here.”

The ink had bled in places. I couldn’t tell whose tears had done it: his, or mine hitting the page right then.

“Dad.”

I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry. You worked on it for so long.”

He patted my back. “I’m glad I never read it. That man didn’t deserve a single word of it.”

When I powered my phone on, dozens of missed calls and hundreds of messages flooded in at once.

The first few still had bite.

[Come back right now, and we can pretend none of this happened.]

[Three hundred guests are sitting here waiting. Do you even understand what you’re doing?]

[This is our wedding, Maren. It’s not the time to throw a tantrum.]

Ten minutes later, he switched to bargaining.

[I had them delay the ceremony.]

[The hotel suite is empty. Come back and get changed.]

[Your dad’s speech goes back in. Everything runs exactly like we planned.]

Half an hour after that, panic.

[Maren, pick up.]

[Sloane left. I made her go.]

[I messed everything up today. Come back. We’ll start over.]

The last message came at eleven that night.

[I’m downstairs.]

I went to the window.

The black car I knew by heart sat under the streetlight. Bennett was still in his groom’s suit, the white boutonniere hanging crooked off his lapel.

He stared up at my window and called. And called.

I didn’t go down.

At two in the morning, a voice message.

[I know you’re home, Maren.]

[Come down. Let’s talk this through.]

[I know I was wrong today, okay? But you already canceled the wedding. You owe me a chance to explain.]

The audacity of it almost made me laugh.

He’d spent our wedding day standing guard for another woman, and somehow I was the one who owed him a chance to explain.

I didn’t reply.

He was still there the next morning.

Mom opened the curtains, and his head snapped up.

My phone rang. This time, I answered.

“Maren.” His voice was scraped raw. “Come down. Let’s talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“I messed up yesterday. I didn’t think you’d actually leave.”

Two seconds of silence. Then I laughed.

“You knew exactly how much it would hurt me, Bennett. What you didn’t expect was for me to actually walk away.”