Chapter 18 #2
I’d never felt more useless in my entire life, because now that she needed me most, I had no answer. My whole life was built on fixing things. On stepping in, figuring it out, and making the problem go away.
Today, there was nothing to punch. No one to threaten. No lever to pull. No machine or treatment to be invented. No amount of money to make her pain go away.
“I’m going to kill him,” I said into her hair.
She let out a wet laugh that turned back into a sob. “You can’t go to prison on my wedding day.”
“I can multitask. At least I’d finally have time to read again.”
She cried harder until a soft knock came at the door. I looked up, my gaze probably wild and furious, ready to tear someone apart, but it was Bree who poked her head in.
“Oh,” she said quietly. “I… I can come back.”
“No,” Liana choked out. “Please don’t go.”
Bree glanced at me, questions dancing her eyes as she stepped into the room and closed the door gently behind her, but she didn’t voice a single one of them. She just took one look at my sister’s face, then at mine, and then something in her expression shifted.
“I’m going to steal you for a second,” she said, already striding toward us. “Sullivan, can you grab her some water?”
I nodded, not arguing or suggesting she do it herself. Instead, I just moved. Frankly, I was grateful to have something I could actually do instead of just holding my sister while she fell apart.
When I got back from the little kitchenette down the hall, Bree had Liana sitting down on the couch beside her, holding both her hands like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Her voice was quiet but firm, her grip on my sister’s hands tight enough that both of their knuckles had turned a little white.
“It’s okay to lose it right now,” Bree was saying as I strode across the room. “You don’t have to be composed, or graceful, or forgiving.”
Liana sniffed. “I feel so stupid.”
“You’re not,” Bree said immediately. “He is. He made a massive mistake here today, Liana, but that’s not on you. Do you hear me? It’s not your fault. It’s like you said, you did everything right.”
I was a little surprised that Liana must’ve told Bree the same thing she’d said to me, but I wasn’t at all surprised that Bree was so much better at handling it.
So instead of joining their conversation after I’d set the water down on the coffee table, I backed away and leaned against the wall, just watching.
“From the minute I met you, you’ve done everything in your power to support him.
To give him space. To believe him and be patient when no one else was.
” Bree paused for a beat. “He didn’t even have the balls to tell you himself.
Texting your brother? That’s just fucking pathetic, and yeah.
I know we’re in church, but I’ll take my chances because that’s how cowardly his behavior has been. ”
Liana let out a shaky laugh. “That does sound like Neil. A coward. Always just rattling off excuses instead of standing up and taking responsibility.”
“Exactly, and listen, I know it hurts like hell right now, but imagine only finding this out after the paperwork has been filed. After you had to sort through mountains of shared furniture or after you wasted years of your life trying to make it work with someone who can vanish like this.”
Liana whimpered. “I know. I know it’s better this way, but I really loved him, Bree. Love him. I don’t even know right now.”
“Of course, you do. That’s why it hurts so much. Your love is real, but so is this.”
I exhaled for what felt like the first time in ten minutes. Holy shit. She’s really good at this, guiding someone through a crisis on the worst day of their life.
Liana finally pulled in a deep breath and sat up a little straighter. “It is real, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Bree said gently, once again pausing to let the truth settle and breathe. “There isn’t going to be a wedding here today, so what we need to do is get through the next hour first, and then get through the hour after that. One step at a time.”
Bree glanced up at me, holding my gaze for just a second, and something like understanding passed between us.
Honestly, I was in awe of her right now.
Of how she just seemed to know what to say.
When Liana had asked me what she was supposed to do now, I hadn’t known at all how to respond, but Bree was already there without my sister even asking.
When she looked back at Liana, she finally released her hands and reached for the water. “Right, so we need a plan for this first hour. Do you have any idea what you’d like to do?”
My sister shook her head from one side to the other, not answering verbally since she was swallowing some water. Bree didn’t wait, though. “Okay, well, I do. I have two ideas, actually. One is slightly unhinged, but the other will get you away from here faster.”
Liana sniffed. “What’s the other idea?”
“You change into the clothes you came here in, we pack all your things, Sullivan takes you out the back to his car and drives you wherever you want to go. I’ll go tell Father Donnelly to let the guests know they can leave.”
My sister nodded slowly, then inhaled a deep breath. “What’s the unhinged idea?”
Bree smiled. “If you’re not up for it, that’s totally fair, but if you want to pull a real rock-star move, then we skip straight to the reception. We invite everyone who’s waiting downstairs, tell them what happened, and then we turn it into… I don’t know, your liberation party.”
For a long minute, there was complete silence in the room, but then Liana laughed, soft at first, but it became gradually harder. “A liberation party?”
“A liberation party.” Bree grinned. “Fancy ballroom. Free booze. Dancing. Having fun. It’s an excellent plan for a bit of revenge.”
Liana wiped her cheeks. “He’d hate that.”
“That’s how you know it’s perfect.”
Liana looked up at me. “What do you think, Sullivan?”
I nodded. “I’ll make the calls to the reception hall and tell them we’re going to be early.”
My sister’s smile was shaky but real. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it.”