Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
Maddy had said it.
She had said it out loud, in front of everyone. To Adam’s face. ‘I can’t.’
Panic hit. Then fear. Then amazement. She’d done it. She had actually done it.
Somehow, despite everything—despite the expectations, the planning, the weight of the room and the day and the man standing beside her—she had said the one thing she hadn’t thought she was incapable of saying.
It felt enormous and catastrophic. It felt right.
But now came the part where she had to live with it. Her life, as it had been ten seconds ago, was gone.
Adam looked like he’d been struck. ‘What?’ he said finally.
Maddy swallowed, her throat tight. ‘I—’
Nothing came out. Because what could she say? Sorry felt too small. The truth felt too large.
The murmuring started up. The people frozen in shock were melting. Maddy felt it pressing in. This was the moment she became the villain of the story.
Then, without meaning to, she looked at Eva.
Eva was still there, exactly where she’d been, but something had shifted in her expression. Shock, yes. Something like disbelief. But underneath that?
Relief.
And in that brief, silent exchange, something passed between them.
You did it.
I know.
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 feel terrible, 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 is not the 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 did what?’
‘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.