Chapter 14 - THE BRIDE IN MY DRESS
Of course I did not go alone.
I also did not tell Rachel that.
Police surrounded the church again.
Apparently my canceled wedding had become a recurring law-enforcement venue.
I wore jeans.
Rachel wore my dress.
She stood at the altar with a gun.
Peter stood beside my mother.
A knife pressed against Diane’s throat.
My mother had been taken from the lake house parking lot while officers were distracted by a false emergency call.
I walked down the aisle.
Rachel smiled through tears.
“You look terrible.”
“You look worse in my dress.”
She almost laughed.
Almost.
“Give me the tape.”
I held up a cassette.
“Let Mom go.”
Peter said, “Do it.”
Rachel’s hand shook.
I looked at her.
“Was any of it real?”
Her eyes filled.
“Don’t.”
“Fifteen years.”
“Sarah.”
“My birthday when nobody came?”
She swallowed.
“I came.”
“My divorce scare with Ethan last year?”
“I stayed three nights.”
“My miscarriage?”
Her face collapsed.
“I held you.”
“Was that real?”
“Yes.”
Peter snapped, “Rachel.”
She flinched.
There.
Not loyalty.
Fear.
I saw it.
“You’re scared of him.”
“Shut up.”
“He used you.”
“Shut up!”
Peter shoved my mother forward.
“Enough.”
Rachel pointed the gun at me.
Then at him.
Peter froze.
“What are you doing?”
She was crying now.
“I’m tired.”
“Rachel.”
“I’m so tired, Dad.”
He lunged.
The gun fired.
My mother screamed.
Peter fell.
Police stormed the church.
Rachel dropped the weapon.
I ran to my mother.
Peter’s shoulder was bleeding.
Alive.
Furious.
As officers dragged him away, he looked at me and smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
I stared at him.
He nodded toward the cassette in my hand.
“That isn’t the original.”
My stomach dropped.
May you like
Then he laughed.
“Ethan has it.”
