Shadows of the Past

EMILY

“I, Kevin, take you, Emily Smith, to be my wife and promise to be faithful to you in all circumstances, happy or unhappy, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish you all the days of my life.”

“I, Emily, take you, Kevin Parker, to be my husband, and I promise to be faithful to you in all circumstances, happy or unhappy, in sickness or in health, to love and respect you all the days of my life.”

“May God, in His goodness, strengthen this consent which you have given before the Church, and may He be pleased to fulfill His blessing in you. What God unites, let not man separate,” said the priest. Emotions overwhelmed me to the limit and two crystal clear tears rolled down my already flushed cheeks.

The kiss at the end of the service was the most wonderful moment of my life. That was the sweetest kiss he had ever given me, and that was because from that moment on I was his forever. It was the happiest day of my life. Like every girl I had long dreamed of this day, when we swore our love to each other.

I was lucky that Kevin enjoyed taking care of the organization, so I let him take care of all the details of the event. I would have liked something simpler, except he wanted a sophisticated wedding. He had quite a few friends invited, which I didn’t mind. That proved to me he was a respected and appreciated person. The only thing that made me a little nervous was that I didn’t know all of his friends. I honestly wouldn’t even have wanted to know them because there was something about them that panicked me, but I didn’t know why. They spoke to me as respectfully as they could, which showed that they were from a different social class. Even the ladies’ outfits showed they were part of high society.

I thanked God for endowing me with a rich imagination and good luck, and I became a famous writer who earned well and could meet all expenses.

I loved the fact that he agreed to have the ceremony and the wedding party in my backyard. I have dreamed since I got to this house that I would have the wedding by the lake that crossed the backyard. It was a huge pond that offered a divine beauty. When my mother gave me this house as a gift, she knew what I loved. That didn’t mean I was selling the house I’d bought with my hard work. Even though it was small, it was very important to me because I bought it.

The decorating and all the arrangements for the wedding, Kevin was very keen that he and Susan did it, which helped me enormously because I could get on with the release of my new book. I could continue the series which became a bestseller, and that was thanks to Olivia. Plus, the two of them were always organizing events that took place often at the hotels where Kevin was a landlord, probably from there he also had so many friends from the wealthy world. 

Ever since Susan joined his firm, the two were always together. Kevin hired her as an event planner, but she proved she could do more and now helped him with everything. It overjoyed me that the two of them were so close. Even though my mom and Olivia told me over and over that their relationship wasn’t good, I just didn’t think they could do anything wrong. Now seriously, how could they even think that? Susan was my childhood friend and Kevin was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and after all, he loved me too, or so I thought.

I loved the way they set up the courtyard for the wedding. They did a great job together. I couldn’t understand why some doubted their relationship, but in the end, it was their business.

On the lakeshore they set up the altar made of flowers specifically for our wedding, a red carpet that would walk me down the aisle. On either side were arrangements of white flowers. They dressed the chairs for the guests in white silk covers. 

All appreciated the round tables with white flower arrangements on them, with chairs dressed in the same type of white silk covers, the guests. The cutlery, glasses and tableware were of the highest quality. Also on each table were name tags with each guest’s name.

Also, they set the stage for the singers and the dance floor up as beautifully as possible. The flower decorations delighted everyone’s eyes. 

 If I had to describe this wedding in two words, it would be something like a princess’ wedding. Only famous names sang, and among the guests were some of our city’s personalities.

I could have said it was a bit much for me, but I loved it. It didn’t matter that I spent much, and I didn’t want to look at the finances until after the wedding. After all, we were going to be a family after this day and everything was going to be put together. If my budget ran out, he would fix the financial problem that he had at his company and then hopefully we would be out of the financial bind fairly quickly. The whole wedding happened out of my accounts, which I didn’t mind. Only Olivia was furious with me about it. She and my mom didn’t like Kevin and didn’t want him around me. 

“Have you ever heard of a bride paying for a wedding? Seriously Emily! Wake up before it’s too late!” Olivia always told me before the wedding. But when she saw I was going through with it, she dropped it. 

The day was perfect, with one exception. I missed my dad, who was supposed to walk me down the aisle. Mom didn’t want to take me, and her words kept echoing in my head.

“I’m not taking you to ruin your life. That’s your job! I don’t like it and I won’t rest until I prove to you I’m right.” 

“He’s my future husband, so please respect him!”

“First, he must respect my family and then I will respect him too,” my mother used to tell me whenever I asked her not to leave me alone on my special day. Only her heart couldn’t be softened. 

Being at a dead end, I went to Olivia, who, like my mother, refused me. I went to my sister, Gaby, who told me she didn’t want any trouble with my mother and eventually my best friend ended up helping me. Susan offered to walk me down the aisle, even though people denigrated her and my mother was always telling me...

“You don’t see because your eyes are blindfolded. Kevin and Susan are screwing around behind your back. Only you see Kevin as a saint when everyone else admits something is wrong with him. And his relationship with Susan, are you blind?” my mother always yelled at me. Even on our wedding day, she told me that.

“Please, mom. At least be reasonable today. Be happy once for me.”

Susan, being my best friend, always supported me. As little kids, we helped each other. I’d help her at school and she’d defend me if anyone picked on me. So I was glad when she offered to walk me down the aisle. She’s basically always been part of my family. 

I had a perfect day, even though I thought I would be uncomfortable. It seemed like too much for me, but it turned out it wasn’t. I had a great time. I enjoyed every minute of the music and met a lot of important people in the world. There were a few celebrities who congratulated me on my book. As Olivia warned me, people were waiting for the sequel and others wanted it translated and published in the most important countries in the world.

The only thing that annoyed me to no end was my mother, who kept coming up and telling me when she didn’t see Kevin around anymore.

“Where is he now? Do you see Susan is missing, too?”

“Mom, seriously! Stop it! Susan is my childhood friend. She won’t do this to me. You want to ruin this day for me? It’s the first time I’ve ever felt truly wonderful.”

Whenever Kevin left, Susan disappeared and vice versa. I didn’t care at first. They said something wasn’t right and went to check it out, except these escapades kept happening and I was the only one at our wedding. That made me quite angry, but there was no way I was going to make a scene in front of so many guests. Then there were the strange looks coming from a friend of his. It felt like a squeeze. It was something that scared me, but I tried to ignore it. 

I refrained from talking for as long as I could, thinking that we were going to talk eventually, when the wedding was over. Everyone was in a good mood and happy about the wonderful event. 

I was glad when the guests left because Kevin and I were finally going to be alone and I could tell him how much his behavior bothered me, but we could also enjoy each other, except for one surprise.

“Honey, just know that Susan is going to stay here because her car broke down and there’s no one to take her home and her car won’t start,” Kevin told me after everyone had left.

Now I couldn’t get upset because she was my friend, but it just didn’t sit well with me. There was no way I was going to send her off alone and put her in danger. I just wanted to talk to him and only him, not third parties. Sometimes there was too much of her presence in our lives.

“Okay baby. But I wanted a magical night. It’s our wedding night, right?”

“Hey, we’ll have a lifetime ahead to enjoy nights like this. We can’t kick her out now. She helped us a lot with the wedding.”

“You’re right. Let her stay with us. I’ll go to bed. Are you coming?”

“You go ahead and I’ll catch up. I’ll have another glass of wine and be right up” 

“This is like her home, so she’ll go to her room alone. I don’t have to stay after her,” I told him, and I left full of hope, thinking he was preparing a surprise for me before he came for me. 

Susan already had her room in my house. She had it before I met Kevin, so it didn’t bother me that much. 

I quickly retired to the master bedroom and got ready for what I hoped would be a night to remember. I got myself a red see-through lace night suit. Underneath, I had only a pair of bikinis, also red. I unpinned my hair and combed it back, letting it fall down over my shoulders. I placed the box I had prepared for him on the dresser in front of the bed. I wanted to give him a wedding present that night, as I considered it. It was a gift that God had given us both. Everything was ready for the night I had dreamed of and planned in detail. 

I laid in bed comforted by the blue silk sheets. I waited impatiently to see him walk through the door. It felt like time stood still. I waited until at some point I felt sleepy from the accumulated tiredness of so many days. After sleeping for an hour or two, I woke up and realized my husband was still missing. I grabbed a thin cape and my cell phone for the flashlight and went to see what was keeping him. I heard whispering coming from Susan’s room and went to her, thinking she knew where Kevin was. Except I got the biggest surprise of all. The two of them were in bed, naked. Susan was whispering love words in Kevin’s ear as he kissed her all over. On my wedding night, my husband and my best friend were having sex in my house, just a few rooms away from me. 

I froze in the room's doorway and turned into a statue of stone who could only stare at the nightmare before my eyes. I wanted to wake up, but it was impossible. My movements seemed to be immobilized by something that was squeezing me tighter and tighter. The words they spoke to each other felt like arrows of fire coming and piercing my heart, making it more and more restless until it hurt. All I could do was put my phone on video and film everything I saw. I felt a vast emptiness in my abdomen that slowly turned into a painful lump that went up into my soul. Even though I felt like someone was cutting my abdomen in half, I continued to stay still and kept filming. I think it was all done mechanically.

After about ten minutes, Kevin spotted me and jumped up like he was on fire trying to come towards me. At that point, I reacted and ran for the exit and stopped directly in my SUV, which luckily had the key in the ignition. I locked the doors before he could catch me. Kevin was pounding on the window shouting for me to wait to explain everything I saw, but all I could do was step on the accelerator and drive away. And after all, what was there to explain since they were both naked in front of me?