“No,” Chase said quickly. “Dawn’s fine. Nothing’s happened to her, or to Nick.”
“Then why—”
“She left him.”
Annie sank down into a chair at the kitchen table. “She left him?” she repeated stupidly. Deb stared at her in disbelief. “Dawn left Nick?”
“Yeah.” Chase rubbed the back of his neck, where the muscles felt as if somebody were tightening them on a rack. “They, uh, they got to the airport and checked in their luggage. Then they went to the VIP lounge. I upgraded their tickets, Annie, and bought them a membership in the lounge. I knew you wouldn’t approve, but—”
“Dammit, Chase, tell me what happened!”
Chase sighed. “Nick said he’d get them some coffee. Dawn said that was fine. But when he came back with the coffee, she was gone.”
“She didn’t leave him,” Annie said, her hand at her heart, “she’s been kidnapped!”
“Kidnapped?” Deb snapped. “Dawn?”
“Did you call the police? Did you—”
“She left a note,” Chase said wearily. Annie heard the rustle of paper. “She says it’s not that she doesn’t care for him.”
“Care for him?” Annie’s voice rose. “People care for—for flowers. Or parakeets. She said she loved Nick. That she was crazy about him.”
“...not that she doesn’t care for him,” Chase continued, “but that loving him isn’t enough.”
“Isn‘t—?”
“Isn’t enough. She says she has no choice but to end this marriage before it begins.”
Annie put her hand over her eyes. “Oh God,” she whispered. “That sounds so ominous.”
Chase nodded, as if Annie could see him.
“Nick’s beside himself, and so am I.” His voice roughened with emotion. “He’s looked for her everywhere, but he can’t find her. Dear God, If anything’s happened to our little girl...”
Annie’s head lifted. As soft as a whisper, the front door opened, then closed. Footsteps came slowly down the hall.
“Mom?”
Dawn stood in the doorway, dressed in the going-away suit they’d bought together, the corsage of baby orchids Annie had pinned on the jacket’s lapel sadly drooping. Dawn’s eyes were red and swollen.
“Baby?” Annie whispered.
Dawn gave Annie a smile that trembled, and then a sob burst from her throat.
“Oh, Mommy,” she wailed, and Annie dropped the phone and opened her arms. Her daughter flew across the room and buried her face in her mother’s lap.
Deb picked the phone up from the floor.
“Chase?”
“Dammit to hell,” Chase roared, “who is this? What’s going on there?”
“I’m a friend of Annie’s,” Deb said. “You and Nick can stop worrying. Dawn’s here. She just came in.”
Chase flashed an okay sign to Nick, who hurried to his side.
“Is my daughter okay?”
“Yes. She seems to—”
Chase slammed down the phone, and he and Nick ran out the door.
CHAPTER THREE
THE MOON HAD RISEN, climbed into a bank of clouds, and disappeared.
Sighing, Chase switched on the lamp beside his chair and wished he could pull a stunt like that. Maybe then people would stop looking at him as if he might just come up with a solution to an impossible situation.
But the simple truth was that impossible situations required improbable solutions, and he didn’t have any. His mind was a blank. At this point, he wasn’t even sure what day it was. The only thing he knew for certain was that a few hours ago, he’d been the father of—the bride. Now he was the father of—what did you call a young woman who’d gotten to the airport and then told her brand-new husband that they’d made an awful mistake and she wanted out?
Smart. That was what Chase would have called her, twenty-four hours ago, when he’d have given just about anything if Dawn had decided to put her wedding off until she was older and, hopefully, wiser.
Chase closed his eyes wearily. But his daughter hadn’t decided to put off her wedding. She’d gone through with it, which put a different spin on things. More than canceling arrangements with the church and the caterer were involved here. Dawn and Nick were bound together, in the eyes of God and in accordance with the laws of the state of Connecticut.
Severing that bond was a lot more complicated than it would have been a few hours ago. And it sure didn’t help that Dawn kept weeping and saying she loved Nick with all her heart, it was just that she couldn’t, wouldn’t, mustn’t stay married to him.