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“Those letters are—”
“The truth,” I say. “Supported by everything I’ve uncovered, from everyone who could help me.”
“What are you going to tell your mother?”
“My mother’s dead,” I say, and I end the call.
* * *
I’m standingin the dining-hall cloakroom, tugging at my tie while glowering at the tiny card in my hand. I shove my birth certificate at Will.
“Does this look real to you?” I say.
“I’m American. I’ve never even seen a Canadian birth certificate.”
“Not helping,” I mutter.
“Don’t look at me,” Jacob says as he pulls on his suit jacket. “I don’t have one, and I’ve never seen one. But if Émilie says it’s real, then it’s real.”
“What if it’s not?” I say. “That could make all of this”—I wave at the closed door into the dining hall—“fake.”
Will takes my shoulders and looks me in the eye. “Are you planning to leave Casey and take half her money?”
“Fuck no.”
“Then it doesn’t matter whether it’s a legal marriage or not. Yes, I know, you want a real wedding and a real marriage, but as far as anyone can tell, this is the real thing. So itisthe real thing. All the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, and if you’re trying to get out of it—”
I answer him with a glare that has him laughing.
He pats my shoulders. “I’m just making a point.”
I glance over at the mirror.
“Stop fussing with the tux,” Will says. “You look great.”
I pause. Then I spin on him. “Wait. You said I’d get half of Casey’s money if we broke up. Shouldn’t I be signing something to say I don’t want that? A premarriage agreement or whatever?”
“A prenup? If you think Casey wouldn’t happily give you half of whatever she has left after the new town, it’s time to call this off, because you don’t know your wife.”
I tug at the damned bow tie, which looks ridiculous.
“I’ve never been to a wedding,” I mutter. “I didn’t tell Casey that. Everyone’s been to weddings, right?”
“I haven’t,” Jacob says.
“Yeah, so both my best man and I have no clue what we’re doing.”
“Guess you shouldn’t have refused when the officiant suggested a rehearsal,” Will says.
“Still not helping.”
Will slaps me on the back. “We have a few minutes left. Let me walk you both through it.”
10
I’m standingat the front of the dining hall. Casey wanted to have the ceremony outside for me, but I don’t want her looking back on today and only remembering she was freezing her ass off.
Jacob is beside me, as my best man. Will is in the front row for moral support—and to signal if I screw up. The dining hall is full. For those who’d been away, we’d let them know this was happening, just to be polite, but they all flew back for the weekend. Only Jen isn’t here—we couldn’t contact her in the forest, which made an excellent excuse, as Casey says. Even Émilie came, and she’s up front with Petra, beaming as if she’s responsible for this whole thing. Which, I guess, she kinda is, at least as the person who got me the ID I needed to legally marry.
