The music started. Virginia hurried bridesmaids out on cue. Lark shot me one more look of despair before stepping into the church in her dark red dress with a bouquet of white flowers.
“Okay, let them get all the way down, and then it’s your turn.” Virginia beamed at me. “Don’t forget to breathe.”
“It’s just another runway,” I muttered as she turned back to face the entrance.
“Canon in D” filtered through the church as it moved from the strings of the quartet I had chosen. The sound bloomed and magnified. The doors opened before me. I stood, silhouetted in the atrium, as the hundreds of guests rose to their feet to face me.
For a split second, I faltered. Debated. Wondered if Lark was right. If I should turn around and run. But it was a moment, and then it was gone.
I stepped forward. Virginia straightened out my train and then the never-ending veil as I walked past row after row of guests. Their faces were a blur. I kept my eyes focused forward as the altar came into focus. The priest in his ceremonial attire. A line of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Everyone identical. Then, Camden standing in a tuxedo that had been handcrafted by a designer in London. I wasn’t close enough yet to discern his expression. That was probably for the better.
As I got closer to the front, I began to recognize more faces. My crew taking up the front rows. My mother seated so regally beside David and his little Texas bride. Camden’s father, Carlyle, seated next to Elizabeth Cunningham. They’d eloped and somehow kept it from the press. They’d have a big wedding sometime next year. Next to Carlyle was Camden’s heinous sister, Candice, and then Elizabeth’s daughter, Harmony, the whore who hated me. My new “family.”
I skipped back to my side of the aisle and nearly froze in place. Natalie. Our eyes snagged, and for a split second, we stared daggers at each other. Then, she tilted her chin up. A stand of defiance. The bitch had the audacity to show her face and at my wedding nonetheless. I’d give her points for having balls, but she clearly had not taken my statement at Trinity seriously.
I passed Natalie, my blood boiling. And then I landed on Penn. My Penn. I just wanted him to look at me. To object. To do something.
But he just made eye contact with me. Looked sad for me. Pity.
Penn Kensington pitied me.
I’d told Lark that I wouldn’t run. But I hadn’t known until that moment that I’d been hoping it was Penn who would talk me out of it. Not just stand there as I went through with it. He really wasn’t going to stop it.
I swallowed and turned back to the man I was marrying. I was finally close enough to see the smirk on his strong features. A beautiful exterior hiding a dark interior. His look said only one thing—mine.
After tonight, I would belong to him.
He’d own me.
And no one was even going to object.
Not even me.
Natalie
34
Katherine and Camden said I do.
They kissed before the huge crowd.
Sealed their union.
It took a solid hour with mass, and when the wedding party finally filed out, it felt too loud for what had just happened. I knew it wasn’t just me that thought whatever we had witnessed was…wrong.
I had no affection for Katherine. And I liked Camden even less. They probably deserved each other. And yet, I’d seen something in Katherine’s eyes when she walked down the aisle. Fear.
Then, she’d found my face in the crowd and glared at me. As if, of all the attendees, I was the only one who didn’t belong. I probably should be reveling in the fact that she was getting what was coming to her after the shit she’d put me through. But that wasn’t me.
Lewis directed me out of the pew and down the aisle. His mom and sisters were clustered around us, discussing how beautiful and over the top and amazing the wedding had been. It felt like we’d been at two different weddings.
I glanced up at Lewis. “That was painful.”
He frowned. “Yeah.”
“I don’t think anyone else noticed.”
“Well, no one else knows that it’s arranged.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “I almost feel bad for her.”
“She could have gotten out of it.”
“Then, why didn’t she?”
He shrugged. “I really have no clue.”
But I had a hunch, and he was walking right past me. Careful not to touch me or even really look my way. Penn Kensington. Katherine must have thought he’d save her. Her knight in shining armor. But no one was there to save her. She’d had to save herself, and for some reason, she’d thought this was how she did it.
I shook my head as I ducked into the back of the car with Lewis. It was only a half-mile walk between St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the reception at The Plaza. But the snow was coming down even harder than it had when the ceremony first started. No one was going to make that walk when most of the attendees had drivers or had hired someone for the occasion.