Chapter 4

None of the messages he sent received a reply.

Since leaving the dinner, Hannah had not contacted him once.

She had said she would not marry him.

He didn't believe her.

They had been together for seven years.

She had stayed beside him from graduation through the hardest years of his life.

He couldn't believe Hannah would abandon the wedding over seating at one table.

Besides, she had dreamed of marrying him for years.

She had chosen the wedding dress herself.

She had reviewed every invitation before it was mailed.

She had revised the reception playlist more than a dozen times.

She had even spent an entire night deciding which photograph would stand at the entrance.

How could a woman who wanted the wedding that badly fail to appear on the day itself?

Mrs. Matthews entered the room, saw him still staring at his phone, and frowned.

"Derek, why are you standing there?

"It's almost time to leave for Hannah's house."

Derek put his phone away.

"Mom, Hannah still isn't answering."

Mrs. Matthews's expression darkened.

"She's making you chase her on purpose.

"We already compromised. The Bennetts are not taking the honor-table seats. What more does she want?

"When you reach her house, say a few comforting words.

"If her parents are still acting offended, swallow your pride and apologize.

"Just get the wedding started first.

"Once she's your wife, there will be plenty of time to teach her how this family handles disagreements."

Derek frowned at that.

"Mom."

She waved him off impatiently.

"I know. You adore her.

"But she has made this situation far uglier than it needed to be.

"Relatives are already asking whether something went wrong with the wedding.

"If she throws another tantrum today, I won't keep indulging her."

Derek didn't answer.

For reasons he could not explain, irritation crawled beneath his skin.

He pushed it aside and picked up his car keys.

"Let's go."

Once he brought Hannah out of the house, he thought, everything would return to normal.

He could apologize in the car and promise to keep more distance from Paige.

He could even make his mother apologize to the McGraws after the reception.

The only thing that mattered was getting through the ceremony.

By the end of the day, they would be husband and wife.

Seven years could not simply be severed with a few angry words.

It was almost nine when the wedding convoy reached the McGraw home.

The hallway was silent.

No bridesmaids were waiting inside. No sign of a wedding morning at all.

There was no wedding wreath or ribbon outside the apartment.

The moment Derek stepped from the car, a strange heaviness settled in his chest.

His best man was still joking.

"Think she's making the pickup difficult on purpose?

"This place is way too quiet."

Derek ignored him and hurried upstairs.

The door was bare, without a single wedding decoration.

He knocked.

No one answered.

He knocked again.

Still nothing.

Color slowly drained from Derek's face.

He called Hannah.

Her phone was off.

He called Elaine McGraw.

Her phone was off too.

He called Robert McGraw.

The call went straight to voicemail.

Mrs. Matthews hurried up from the street, her expression sour.

"What is going on?

"Where is everyone?"

Derek stared at the closed door as pressure tightened across his chest.

His best man spoke cautiously.

"Could they have gone straight to the hotel?"

The suggestion gave Derek something to hold on to.

Of course.

Hannah was still angry and had refused the planned pickup.

But the hotel reservation would still exist.

The invitations had gone out, and dozens of friends and relatives would be there.

Hannah would never humiliate herself by canceling in front of everyone.

Derek forced himself to remain calm.

"Go to the hotel."

he said.

"She must already be there."

Mrs. Matthews immediately relaxed.

"Of course she is.

"She only wanted to make us nervous.

"Once we're at the hotel, we'll hold the ceremony first and settle this afterward."

Derek didn't respond.

He slid into the car and gripped his phone until his knuckles whitened.

Outside the window, white ribbons tied to the wedding cars fluttered in the morning wind.

They looked painfully festive.

Yet the unease in his chest only grew heavier.

At the entrance to the Grand Briar Hotel, a large engagement portrait of Hannah and Derek was supposed to greet the guests.

In its place stood a new family photograph of the McGraws.

Hannah stood between her parents, one arm around each of them.

Beside it, an elegant gold-lettered sign read:

"Robert and Elaine McGraw - Thirty Years Together."