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Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd. Remy tensed from behind me—we’d all turned to face Henry. He stepped out of line, his chin lifted proudly, his breath shallow, judging by the quick rise and fall of his chest.
He was in love with Cass. He’d lied to me about everything because he was in love with?—
“Davis, I can’t let you do this. You have to tell her. She can’t marry you until she knows.”
Davis’s face broke in anguish, his chin trembling, hand shifting as if to reach for Henry, but he dropped it again.
Cass’s voice was quiet, hard, and trembling all at once. “What’s going on?”
Henry’s Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “I’ve been in love with Davis since Eton, and he’s been in love with me.”
“Henry—“ Davis started.
“No!” Henry snapped. “No more. It ends now.” He turned back to Cass, completely broken. “We’ve been together since high school, Cass. We’ve always been together.”
A pink flush crept from the top of her sweetheart neckline and bloomed on her cheeks. “You...what?” She turned to Davis. “Is that...is he...he can’t be. You can’t be. Oh my God, Davis. Oh my God!” And then she was crying and screaming and beating Davis with her bouquet. Flower heads popped off and flew into the air like shrapnel until Remy grabbed her, held her. She sagged in his arms, sobbing.
My shock was total. My devastation for Cass was absolute.
In my periphery, I saw Wilder stand, but Remy shook his head. Wilder just watched Cass, looking torn.
“How could you?” she rasped. “How could you do this to me?”
Davis shook his head—he was crying too. “Cass, I—” his voice broke. “I love you.”
“You love him!”
He looked older in that moment. Now that the burden had been lifted, the toll it had taken was plain as day.
“Yes. I love him too.”
Cass wailed, twisting in Remy’s arms to bury her face in his chest, and he gathered her up protectively, glowering at Henry.
“Say yes. Choose me. I’ll give it all up. Just say the word.”
Davis stepped into Henry. “Yes,” he breathed.
Henry caught his face, their lips colliding, the pain on their faces etched deep in the furrows of their brows, the tears on their cheeks. It was a meeting of hearts and souls long quieted, grave and urgent.
Several women cried out, people began to talk and stand and gasp. Crazy Aunt Julie stood, then immediately fainted into a little bubble of chaos as the people nearby tried to catch her. Others marched directly out.
Davis and Henry were forehead to forehead, whispering to each other. The preacher gaped, staring as his glasses slowly slid down his nose. A couple of men started to march violently toward them, and Remy passed Cass to me on the way to intercept.
I could barely hold her up, her body shaking with sobs, her face in the crook of my neck as if she could hide there. Her mother was instantly at her other side.
“Come on, let’s get you somewhere you can have a moment, shall we?” I asked, already heading toward the bridal suite.
“How could he do this?” she asked, her voice rough and broken. “Always. They-hey’ve always been...they’ve b-been—” A fresh wail slipped out of her.
Jenny and I shared a concerned look and hurried her back. We had her sitting down a moment later with a box of tissues. When Remy entered, it was with a bottle of Johnny Walker. He uncorked it and handed it over without preamble. She took it silently and tipped it for a long drink, coughing when she came up for air.
“Want me to kill him?” Remy asked.
“Yes, please.” She blew her nose with a honk.
“Cass!” Davis called from the hallway, past Wilder, who stood watch in the open doorway. “Cassidy, please. Please, talk to me.”
“Fuck off, asshole!” she shrieked, crying again.
