Chapter 15
Brooklyn did not call Luke.
She did not text him.
She did not post anything cryptic on social media.
For an entire week, she disappeared.
Grace should have found that reassuring.
Instead, she found herself checking her phone every morning, almost expecting to wake to another thoughtful message or another well-intentioned surprise.
Nothing came.
By Thursday, she caught herself smiling more.
Wedding planning suddenly felt... manageable.
She and Luke finalized the invitations together over Chinese takeout.
They laughed over one of his suggested menu cards that accidentally read Please enjoy our desert instead of dessert.
Grace spent an entire evening assembling invitation suites while Luke stuffed envelopes and insisted he was better at peeling stamps.
"You absolutely are not."
"I've got a system."
"You lick the wrong side every third stamp."
"It keeps me humble."
She laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I love you."
He didn't even look up from the envelopes. "I know."
She nudged him with her shoulder. "That wasn't the correct response."
"It wasn't?"
"No." He finally looked up, smiling. "I love you too."
She watched him for a moment. "What?"
"I was just thinking..."
"Dangerous."
"...how normal this feels." Luke looked around the dining room table covered in envelopes, address labels, and scattered sheets of tissue paper. "I hope marriage is mostly this."
"What?"
"Boring."
Grace laughed. "I think boring sounds wonderful."
"So do I." He reached across the table and threaded his fingers through hers. "I've had enough drama."
Neither of them realized how prophetic the sentence would become.
The invitations went into the mail the following morning. By Monday, replies had already begun arriving.
Grace came home from work balancing groceries against one hip while sorting through the stack of mail she'd picked up from the box. Electric bill. A magazine. Three RSVP cards.
She smiled.
People were actually coming. The wedding no longer felt like a distant idea. It was becoming real. She carried everything into the kitchen, dropped the groceries onto the island, and opened the first RSVP.
Accepted.
The second.
Accepted.
The third.
Grace frowned.
There was no return address.
Inside was one of their RSVP cards.
Someone had checked Declines with regret.
Across the bottom, in neat blue ink, they'd written:
We're so sorry to miss Luke and Brooklyn's special day.
Grace stared.
Once.
Twice.
Then she laughed.
It had to be someone making an honest mistake. The wedding invitations had included an engagement photograph of her and Luke beneath their names. No one could actually think Brooklyn was the bride.
She set it aside and continued unpacking groceries.
Luke arrived twenty minutes later.
"You look amused." Grace held up the RSVP.
He read it. His smile disappeared. "What?"
She pointed.
His eyes dropped to the handwritten note. For several seconds he simply looked at it. Then he frowned. "That's... odd."
"I figured somebody got confused."
"How?"
"I don't know."
She shrugged. "They probably know Brooklyn through your parents."
Luke turned the card over. There was still no return address. "That's strange."
Grace took it back. "I'm sure it's nothing."
He didn't answer immediately.
"What?"
"I don't think so."
Grace looked at him. "It's happened before."
"What has?"
He walked over to the refrigerator and leaned against it. "The assumption."
"What assumption?"
"That Brooklyn and I..." He stopped. "I guess I never told you."
"Told me what?" Luke rubbed the back of his neck.
"When I was twenty-four, one of my clients congratulated me on my engagement."
Grace blinked.
"You weren't engaged."
"Not to Brooklyn."
"He'd seen Brooklyn and me at a charity gala."
"And assumed."
Luke nodded. "I corrected him."
Grace thought about it. "That doesn't seem that strange."
"It wasn't." He hesitated. "It happened again."
"How many times?"
"I don't know."
"Luke."
He sighed. "Maybe... four?"
Grace stared. "Four people assumed you and Brooklyn were together?"
"Over several years."
"Did Brooklyn know?"
"I never mentioned it."
Grace looked down at the RSVP card again. Something about it no longer felt amusing.
Three days later, another RSVP arrived. Again, there was no return address.
Again, the response card had been checked Accepts with pleasure.
And beneath it, someone had written:
Congratulations, Luke. Brooklyn has been part of the family forever. We always knew this day would come.
Grace read it in complete silence. Then she folded the card carefully and placed it beside the first one.
When Luke arrived that evening, she handed him both.
He read the first.
Then the second.
His jaw tightened.
"I don't understand."
Neither did Grace.
Until she turned over the second envelope.
A tiny white address label had partially peeled away.
Beneath it was another label.
The original one. Grace looked closer.
The invitation had first been addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Alan Foster.
Someone had removed that label. Printed a new one. And mailed it somewhere else.
Luke frowned. "Who are the Fosters?"
Grace looked at him. "You don't know?"
He shook his head.
She turned the RSVP card over.
The signature at the bottom was almost hidden beneath the fold.
Alan & Hannah Foster.
Grace's stomach dropped.
"Hannah."
Luke stared.
"Brooklyn's friend."
The one who had called Grace. The one who had insisted Brooklyn was simply grieving a changing friendship. Luke slowly sat down at the kitchen table. Neither of them spoke.
Finally Grace asked quietly, "Do you think Hannah wrote that?"
Luke looked at the cards again. "I honestly don't know."
Grace wasn't sure she believed that.
She thought Hannah probably had.
Luke looked exhausted.
"What if..." he began slowly, "...what if Brooklyn has spent so many years letting people believe something that wasn't true..."
He didn't finish.
Grace understood anyway. She pulled out the chair beside him. "Luke."
He looked up.
"I'm going to ask you something."
"Okay."
"And I need you to answer me honestly."
"I will."
She took a breath. "Has Brooklyn ever told people you two were together?"
His answer came immediately.
"No."
Grace believed him. "Has she ever corrected them when they thought you were?"
Silence.
Luke stared at the tabletop.
Finally he looked back at her. "I don't know."
The words landed heavily between them.
Because for the first time… He realized he didn't know the answer either.
Across town, Brooklyn stood in the community center arranging table settings for a charity fundraiser. One of the volunteers smiled as she walked by.
"I heard Luke's getting married next month."
Brooklyn smiled warmly. "He is."
The volunteer shook her head.
"I always thought it would be you."
Brooklyn gave a small, wistful laugh. "So did a lot of people." She picked up another stack of place cards. "But life doesn't always work out the way people expect."
The volunteer squeezed her arm sympathetically.
"I'm sorry."
Brooklyn smiled again.
There wasn't a trace of bitterness in her expression. "It's all right." She had never told anyone Luke was hers.
She had simply...
Never rushed to correct them.
Why would she?
For years, there had been nothing to correct.
People saw two people who did everything together. Who spent holidays together. Who attended weddings together. Who called each other first when something went wrong. They had drawn their own conclusions.
Brooklyn had merely let them.
Now, watching those assumptions quietly unravel around her, she experienced something she hadn't expected.
Not satisfaction.
Not yet.
Something colder.
Resolve.
Luke had finally drawn a line.
Which meant it was time to stop relying on history.
History had gotten her this far.
If she wanted him back...
She would have to make him choose.