It steadied her for half a heartbeat. And then she turned back to Adam. The poor man. ‘Ad—’
But she didn’t get to the second syllable of her now-former fiancé’s name. Because someone had stood up in the congregation. And they were speaking at quite a volume.
‘God, Maddy, I’m so sorry.’
Maddy blinked and turned.
A woman near the middle tables had stood up, shakily. Mary. Maddy knew immediately that she was sloshed. But enough to insert herself into this shit show?
‘Mary—’ Maddy started, meaning to tell her to sit down. She didn’t have time for Mary’s drunken antics. She was in the middle of setting her life on fire.
‘No, no, I have to say this,’ Mary insisted, already crying in the slightly theatrical way of someone who had been drinking steadily for several hours. ‘I can’t just… I mean, it’s my fault, obviously, and I feelterrible, I’ve felt terrible for months…’
Maddy was confused. ‘Mary,’ she tried again, sharper now.
But Mary was unstoppable. ‘…And I thought, you know, it was just a one-time thing, and we were both a bit drunk, and it was the engagement party, which in hindsight isnotthe best time for that sort of decision-making—’
The room went very, very quiet. Maddy turned slowly back toward Adam. Adam wasn’t looking at anyone.
Oh,Christ.
Mary took a breath, steadying herself for what she clearly believed was a noble, if overdue, confession.
‘I slept with Adam,’ she announced, with the full, ringing clarity of someone who had absolutely no sense of volume control anymore. ‘And you know, don’t you? That’s why you can’t go through with this. Because of me!’
A collective intake of breath swept the room, followed by a burst of overlapping gasps, questions, and incredulous laughter. Dinner theatre was now in full swing.
‘You didwhat?’
‘Is she serious?’
‘Oh my God—’
Maddy looked back at Adam again. He was glaring at Mary now. Then, slowly, he turned back to Maddy. ‘Umm…’ he began.
Maddy held up a hand, silencing him. A thing she’d never done before.
‘Wow,’ she breathed.
He looked away.
Around her, voices were rising, people were standing, someone was trying and failing to shush Mary, who was now apologising to Adam as well, as if that might help.
But Maddy said no more, quietly trying to understand this next ridiculous development of her fucking ridiculous wedding day.
Forty-Eight
Eva, who had spent years managing other people’s crises with the calm efficiency of someone who believed that nothing could surprise her anymore, simply stood there and thought,well, that’s new.
Because there were flyaway arches. There were collapsed ceilings. There were brides who hesitated. And then there was this. Even Eva, had she wanted to, could not save a wedding from this.
Mary, swaying slightly in the middle of the room, had both hands pressed dramatically to her chest now, as if she were the one who had just been jilted at the altar.
‘I didn’t want to say anything,’ she was insisting to everyone and no one. ‘I thought it would just go away. But guilt doesn’t go away, does it? Itfesters.’
‘Mary,’ Aria hissed.
‘I’m owning it!’ Mary shot back.
