บททั้งหมดของ The Boy I Wasn't Supposed To Want. : บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

The wedding was three weeks away now, and the house had transformed into something between a florist's warehouse and a logistics command center, boxes of centerpieces stacked in the hallway, a garment bag holding Diane's dress hanging on the back of her bedroom door like a held breath.Ivy found her mother at the kitchen table, surrounded by seating charts, a glass of wine within reach that had gone untouched for the better part of an hour."You've been staring at that same chart for twenty minutes," Ivy said, sitting down across from her."I keep moving the same three names around and none of the arrangements feel right." Diane rubbed her temples. "Your aunt Carol still can't sit near Marcus's side, apparently there's history there I'm only now hearing about, and I have exactly one open table left to solve two separate seating catastrophes.""Do you want help?""I want this whole thing to be simple," Diane admitted. "I know it isn't. I knew that the second Reagan showed up on our doo

Diane asked everyone to give them the room, and the bridal party filed out quietly, sensing something too heavy for rehearsal small talk. Marcus lingered at the door a moment before Diane gave him a small nod, and he left too, leaving mother and daughter alone among the half-set chairs and the ribbon-wrapped arch waiting for Saturday."Sit with me," Diane said, lowering herself onto the front row of empty seats.Ivy sat, phone still clutched in her hand, the old photograph glowing accusingly on the screen until she finally put it away."His name was Thomas," Diane said, staring straight ahead at the arch instead of at Ivy. "Reagan's father. I should have told you that a long time ago instead of letting you learn it from a stranger's texts.""Mom, what happened the night he disappeared?"Diane's hands twisted together in her lap. "After the custody case fell apart, after the test results came back and it was clear he had no legal claim to you, he didn't take it well. He showed up at my

Saturday arrived gray and warm, the kind of overcast morning that couldn't decide whether it wanted to rain, the venue's outdoor arch already strung with flowers by the time Ivy arrived to help Diane get ready.The bridal suite buzzed with the particular chaos of a wedding morning, a hairstylist working through Diane's curls, Priya fussing over the hem of Ivy's bridesmaid dress, someone's aunt crying happy tears in the corner over nothing in particular."How are you feeling?" Priya asked quietly, catching Ivy alone for a moment near the window."Terrified," Ivy admitted. "Hopeful. Mostly terrified.""Any word from Reagan?""Nothing since Thursday." Ivy glanced out the window at the gathering guests below, scanning faces out of habit now. "I don't know if that's good or bad.""Maybe it's just quiet," Priya offered. "Maybe quiet is allowed to just be quiet, for once."Ivy wanted to believe that. She wasn't sure she did.Callum found her outside the suite an hour before the ceremony, sha

Marcus led them away from the reception, toward the quiet of the venue's side garden where the noise of the party faded into distant music and the occasional burst of laughter. Diane found them there minutes later, Priya having pulled her away from a conversation with the caterer the moment she saw Callum's face across the tent."What's going on?" Diane asked, still glowing from the day, confusion creeping into her expression as she took in the four of them standing tense in the dim garden light."Thomas's widow was at the ceremony," Marcus said. "Watching from the back of the tent. She's gone now, but she was there."Diane's hand flew to her mouth. "Margaret. She came here?""You know her name," Ivy said."Of course I know her name. I've spent twenty years dreading the day she'd find us." Diane's voice was unsteady. "Marcus, what does she know? You said something back there, that there's something you never told me."Marcus rubbed a hand over his face, the wedding suit suddenly looki

They moved the conversation to Marcus's car, parked at the far edge of the lot, away from stray wedding guests wandering out for air. Diane sat up front beside him. Ivy and Callum climbed into the back seat together, the four of them sealed into a small, quiet space that felt worlds away from the music still drifting faintly from the reception tent.Marcus held the envelope like it might combust."You don't have to read it tonight," Diane said gently, though her hand was gripping his forearm like she needed the contact as much as he did. "Margaret's right that it's waited twenty years. It can wait until morning.""I know." Marcus's thumb traced the edge of the flap. "I don't think I can wait, though. Not now that I know he wrote that last line specifically for a moment like this one."Ivy watched him from the back seat, something aching in her chest at the sight of a man in his fifties, married only hours earlier, sitting in a dark parking lot working up the courage to finally hear fr