My sister told me Nathan had stopped everything himself.Just minutes before the ceremony, he had walked past the bridal suite and overheard Kirsten talking to one of her bridesmaids.“She finally stayed home,” Kirsten said. “After today, I won’t have to deal with his mother anymore.”
Kirsten laughed.
“He’ll get over it. Once we’re married, he’ll understand where his loyalty belongs.”
Nathan was standing right outside the door.
He walked in still wearing his tuxedo.
“Did you tell my mother she wouldn’t be family anymore?”
Kirsten froze.
At first, she denied it.
Then my sister stepped forward and repeated exactly what I had told her that morning.
Nathan looked at Kirsten for a long moment.
Then he removed his boutonniere.
“There is no wedding.”
By noon, guests were leaving.
The cake remained untouched.
The flowers stayed arranged for a ceremony that never happened.
Nathan drove straight to my house.
When I opened the door, he looked exhausted.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you had already chosen.”
His face crumpled.
“No. She chose for me.”
Then he noticed the scrapbook still sitting beside me.
He picked it up and hugged me.
Kirsten believed marriage would give her the right to erase the family Nathan already had.
Instead, the night before the wedding, she revealed exactly what kind of future she was planning.
And Nathan decided not to step into it.
