Parting For Real

My mother, Marilyn Hester, ripped the corsage off her dress, slammed her hand on the table, and shot to her feet. "It's been five times now, and it's the same every single time! What could possibly be more important than your own wedding?"

A hush fell over the guests.

Natalie Knight coaxed her gently, "Marilyn, please don't be upset. Something came up at the company."

Once my mother had calmed down, Natalie took the velvet ring box from the flower girl, a faint smile on her face. "Honey, I didn't mean to be late. Whatever you want to make up for it, it's yours."

But something caught my eye even more than the sparkle of the diamond ring: the bandage on her neck.

It was covering the bite mark Brett Morrison had left there.

"Is that so?" I suddenly laughed.

She froze. Then, thinking I loved her enough to forgive her again and again, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

The next second, I charged over, landed a hard punch on Brett, and dumped a glass of red wine over his head.

"Nolan, have you lost your mind?!"

As the shattered glass fell, Natalie's first instinct was to shield Brett.

A shard of glass sliced a cut across my face.

Every guest in the room, Natalie included, stared at me in shock. As if I were the one who'd gone crazy for no reason.

Natalie kept Brett behind her, and the look she gave me was tinged with disgust.

"Yes! Something urgent came up with Brett's family just now, and that's why I was late. But he's your childhood best friend! How could you bring yourself to hit him?"

I couldn't remember when she'd started caring so much about Brett.

Back in college, Brett had a crush on her for years, and the whole school knew about it.

But whenever his name came up, her face filled with disgust. "Just seeing him annoys me. He's dumb, and he's not even good-looking. I really don't get why you're so close to him."

Harsh as her words were, I'd felt lucky back then.

I got to keep my love, and the friendship Brett and I had shared since we were kids.

And in the end, she'd been hooking up with Brett behind my back, even fooling around with him backstage at our wedding.

This was the same woman who, to convince her family to let her marry me, had knelt before her mother, Agnes Knight, and slammed her forehead against the floor thirty times.

"Mom, I'll never marry anyone but Nolan. If you don't agree, I'll bang my head on this floor until I die!"

Brett had also stood under the blazing sun outside the gates of the Knight estate for five hours, pleading my case. "My buddy's happiness matters more than anything. I want him to marry the woman he loves."

Now Brett was dripping with red wine, looking at me with a guilty look.

The guests' whispers, my mother's worry, and Natalie's condescending "Stop making a scene. Let's just finish the ceremony."

I forced a dry smile and tore off my ridiculous boutonniere.

All I heard was my own frighteningly calm voice saying, "Natalie, let's get a divorce."