Chapter 51
Fifty-One
Maddy stopped so abruptly that Eva nearly walked into her.
The car park, which had seemed like simply a space they might pass through on their way to whatever lay ahead, was rammed full of no one Maddy wanted to see just now.
‘Maddy,’ Adam said. He sounded like someone trying very hard to keep things from getting worse than they already were. ‘Can we just talk about this for a second?’
Maddy opened her mouth. Nothing came out. Because what was there to say? Where did you even start when the last twenty minutes of your life had included cancelling a wedding, discovering infidelity, kissing your wedding planner, and agreeing to run away together?
Mary, unfortunately, had no such hesitation.
‘I’m leaving the library and going to rehab,’ she announced, to no one and everyone at once. ‘I owe us both that, Maddy.’
‘Mary,’ Adam said tightly, ‘please.’
‘But secrets are what cause these things,’ she ploughed on. ‘And if I’d just kept quiet, then—’
‘You should have kept quiet,’ Adam snapped.
‘She knew what happened, Adam,’ Mary said. ‘The cat was out of the bag. So don’t pretend I ruined your wedding.’
‘I didn’t know,’ Maddy said.
Mary froze. ‘You didn’t?’
‘No,’ Maddy replied. ‘That wasn’t…’ She stopped. Because everyone was looking at her.
Adam. Mary. Hannah. Kelly. Sandra. Even Harry, who was currently in the middle of a very pointed conversation with Ralph about partial refunds, turned slightly, like this might affect the numbers.
Kelly stepped forward. ‘Then why? she asked. She hadn’t raised her voice. She didn’t need to. Her shame game was, and always had been, tight. ‘If you didn’t know about that,’ she said, with a small, dismissive flick toward Mary, ‘then why did you say no?’
Maddy swallowed. This was it. This was the part she’d been trying not to think about. Because saying, ‘I can’t’ was one thing. Explaining was something else entirely.
‘Mum,’ she started, buying time.
‘Don’t “Mum” me,’ Kelly said evenly. ‘You don’t humiliate a man like that, in front of his entire family, without a reason.’
‘I have a reason,’ Maddy said.
‘Not right then you didn’t,’ her mother said, working from Kelly-logic. ‘So, I’d quite like to hear why.’
The car park seemed to hold its breath.
Hannah shifted slightly. ‘Maybe this isn’t the place…’
‘It’s exactly the place,’ Kelly cut in. ‘I worked hard for today. To give you this day.’
Maddy felt Eva’s presence beside her. It helped. Maddy took a breath. Then another. ‘Because I don’t love him,’ she said.
Adam flinched. It was small, but Maddy saw it. And the instinct to try and take her words back came and, thankfully, went.
‘You don’t…’ Kelly blinked once. ‘What do you mean, you don’t love him?’
‘I mean,’ Maddy said, forcing herself to keep going, ‘that I thought I did. For a long time. No, I thought it worked. That’s the truth. That’s all I ever thought to hope for.’
‘It does work,’ Kelly said, sharper now.
‘No,’ Maddy said, shaking her head. ‘It doesn’t. I just didn’t realise it before.’
‘And now you do?’ Adam asked quietly.
Maddy looked at him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
He’d done a terrible thing, but so had she. She’d fallen in love with someone else. He deserved one good apology for that.
‘We can still come back from this,’ he said.
Maddy was aghast. ‘I don’t know why you’d want to. From the sounds of things, Adam, you’ve not been happy either,’ she said plainly. She couldn’t think why they’d never talked like this before. It wasn’t so hard.
‘No, I just… It’s been a lot. My dad kept saying I needed to crack on with adult life, and I suppose I felt pressured to propose, and then the whole thing started to get away from me.’
‘Don’t you dare blame me for this,’ Harry roared. ‘I just said it was time to be a man. Why is that a big ask at your age?’
‘I’m not you, Dad. That doesn’t mean I’m not a man,’ Adam said tearfully.
‘No, but shagging someone at your engagement party does,’ Sandy said.
Maddy was astonished. Adam’s mother was the quietest person on earth. But when she had something to say, it was a belter.
‘She’s got you there,’ Mary interjected.
‘Piss off!’ Adam screeched at her. ‘And you, Mother.’
Sandy tutted but said no more.
‘So what, exactly, has changed here?’ Kelly asked, cutting through to Maddy. ‘Why can’t we all go back to before things went wrong?’
Maddy was tired of talking. So, she reached for Eva’s hand. Eva took it immediately, clasping it tightly.
Kelly’s eyes dropped to their hands. Then back up to Maddy’s face. ‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Hannah said immediately. ‘This is just heightened emotions, the day’s been stressful, people make impulsive decisions—’
‘I’m not being ridiculous,’ Maddy said. Her voice was steadier now. ‘I’m leaving,’ she added. ‘With Eva.’
Mary gasped. ‘Whoa,’ she whispered. ‘This is worse than what I did.’
‘Mary, please stop ranking the chaos,’ Eva muttered.
Adam stared at them. At their hands.
‘Look, I know I did something bad,’ he said slowly. ‘But this feels like an overreaction.’
‘It’s not about you,’ Maddy said.
‘Why not?’ he demanded petulantly.
Kelly let out a short, disbelieving laugh. ‘You’re throwing away your entire life,’ she said, ‘for what? This?’
‘For something real,’ Maddy replied. It came out before she could second-guess it.
Kelly’s expression hardened. ‘You don’t know what real love is. I blame your father. He had to go and die young, didn’t he? And now you’ve got funny ideas.’
Maddy sighed loudly. ‘Mother…’ But she didn’t know if there was anything else to say. Her mother didn’t understand this. It didn’t matter. She was doing it anyway.
‘And you!’ Kelly said, rounding on Eva. Maddy felt her take a tiny step back.
‘Her what?’ Maddy asked angrily.
‘I paid you!’ Kelly said.
‘Oh. Well. Obviously, there will be a full refund, Mrs Kind,’ Eva said sheepishly.
‘You’ve ruined her life! You can’t refund that,’ Kelly told her.
‘She didn’t ruin my life,’ Maddy said, though she knew it was pointless. ‘She started my life.’
‘Ha!’ Kelly exclaimed.
‘Look,’ Adam’s father interrupted loudly. ‘There are bigger things to discuss here.’
Everyone turned to him.
‘I can go down to a forty percent refund, but that’s the basement offer,’ he said to Ralph.
‘Can we not do this here?’ Hannah snapped, clearly losing her grip on the situation entirely now. ‘Can everyone just go back inside?’
‘No,’ Maddy said. She squeezed Eva’s hand. She felt a return squeeze. ‘We’re not going back inside.’
She gently pulled Eva, who took the hint and moved with her. They headed for Eva’s mini.
‘Maddy—’ Adam called.
‘Don’t,’ Maddy said without turning. ‘And just so you know, I’m taking the honeymoon!’
She reached Eva’s car, breath coming fast, heart pounding, like it had been doing all day. But it was a different type of palpitation now.
Her mind raced to the next steps. She’d have to make a stop, get changed, grab some clothes, and her passport. And Eva would need stuff too.
But it was all going to be fine. They were leaving. Together.
She yanked the passenger door open, half-laughing in disbelief at her own life.
‘We’re actually doing this,’ she said.
Eva, equally breathless, just nodded. ‘Yeah. We are.’
They got in. Doors slammed. And before the rest of it could catch up with them, they drove.