Chapter Two

The Walk Back

I stood in that hallway for what felt like an eternity.

All I know is that at some point my legs started moving. Back down the stairs. Back into the cab. Back to the venue.

The driver looked at me in the mirror a couple of times. He did not say a word. I was still wearing my wedding dress. I must have looked pretty ridiculous. I stared out the window. Kept thinking about what Daven and Elena had said.

She won't be a problem they said. She never is.

Does she know she already signed the papers I wondered.

Not yet they said. And by the time she figures it out it will be too late.

I pressed my hand against my stomach. Told myself to breathe. One thing at a time. First I had to get through this day. Then I could worry about everything

When the cab stopped outside the venue I sat there for a moment. I could see people still inside waiting and hoping that something would happen. Some of them had come from cities for this wedding. Some of them had taken time off work.

I got out of the cab. Walked back into the venue.

The noise hit me first. People were. Shuffling around and someone was already crying in the back. Then there was silence. It spread from the front of the room to the back like a wave the moment people saw me walk alone. Two hundred faces turned to look at me.

I kept walking.

My mother was in the row. When she saw me just me, no Daven walking back alone in my wedding dress her face said it all. She stood up away and reached out to me with both hands.

"Sofia " she said.

"He is not coming " I said.

The room went completely quiet.

My voice did not shake. I do not know how I managed that. Everything inside me was shaking,. My voice came out flat and clear. I stood at the front of that room in my wedding dress in front of two hundred people. I said the words out loud for the first time.

"The wedding is not happening today. I am so sorry you all came. Please just go home."

That was when my mother started crying. Loudly. The kind of crying she had been holding back all morning. It made two women in the third row start crying too. My aunt covered her mouth with both hands. Someone at the back whispered something. I could not hear what it was.

I stood there. Took all of it.

Someone touched my arm. It was Chloe.

"Sofia come with me. Lets get you out of here " she said.

"I am fine " I said. Deep down,

I was not fine.. I was not going to fall apart in front of all those people either.

People started moving around me. Some came close to say something. I could not hear the words properly. Everything had gone slightly underwater. I smiled at whoever came near me and nodded and kept saying I am fine I am fine I am fine until eventually Chloe put her arm firmly around my shoulders and walked me out of the hall and into a side room and closed the door behind us.

The noise disappeared.

Then I sat down on the floor.

Not a chair, the floor. There in my wedding dress on the cold hard floor of that side room.

Chloe sat down beside me without saying a word. She did not try to fix it or explain it or tell me it was going to be okay. She just sat. Which was the kindest thing anyone did for me that entire day.

We sat there for a long time.

Then my phone rang.

I looked at the screen. My stomach turned over.

It was Daven.

I stared at his name for three rings. My thumb hovered over the screen. Part of me wanted to throw the phone across the room. Instead I picked up.

"Sofia I need you to stay calm " he said.

"I am calm " I said.

"Good. Look I know today was a lot.. There are some things we need to sort out quickly. Practical things."

" things " I repeated the words slowly.

"The apartment. The lease is in my name. I am going to need you to move your things out by the end of the week."

I said nothing.

"Sofia did you hear me?" he asked.

"You are calling me " . "Two hours after you sent me that message. On my wedding day. And ask me to move out."

"I know the timing is not great but we need to be adults about this " he said.

"End of the week " I said. "I heard you."

I hung up before he could say another word.

Chloe was staring at me with so much concerned.

"He just asked me to move out " I told her. My own voice sounded strange to me. Flat. Empty.

She opened her mouth closed it and then said:

"I will help you pack."

That was the moment I finally cried. Not because of the wedding not because of what I saw in that bedroom. Because Chloe, someone I had known for two years and was not even that close to offered without hesitating to help me pack my things. While the man I was supposed to marry today was already planning to move his girlfriend into the apartment we had picked out together.

I cried quietly. Chloe held my hand and did not say a word and I was grateful for every second of the silence.

Then my phone buzzed. Not a call, a message.

The unknown number.

"I know you are at the venue. I know what just happened. There is something you need to know about those papers, Sofia. Something that cannot wait. Meet me tomorrow. Coffee place on Birch Street nine in the morning. Come alone. Tell no one. A friend."

I read it twice a third time.

Then I looked up at Chloe. She was watching me with eyes waiting for me to fall apart completely. I almost did.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"Yes " I said.

I was not okay. I was sitting on the floor of a side room in a wedding dress I would never wear again with to live by the end of the week and a stranger who somehow knew exactly where I was and what had happened to me was sending me messages about papers I did not remember signing.

I typed one word back, to the unknown number

"Okay."

I do not know why I said yes.

Maybe it was because every single person I had ever trusted had just proven in one day that they were not worth trusting.

Maybe it was because somewhere deep down I already knew.

This was not over yet. Whatever Daven and Elena had started, it was not finished.

I was not going to sit on this floor forever.