Chapter 5: Rain Followed Them Away From the Altar With Olivia's Name Unanswered
Rain struck chapel steps hard enough to blur faces beyond the open doors. I carried the tan envelope beneath my jacket, pressing one hand over it while the other held Lucy close to my side.
She stayed beside me because I moved first, not because she trusted me. Her soaked sweatshirt clung to her narrow shoulders. Water ran from her hair onto her cheeks, and she kept one fist locked around the envelope flap as if I might take it from her.
Behind us, the wedding had become a public wreck. Guests crowded the doorway. White roses lay scattered across the aisle. Victoria stood near the altar in her dress and veil, motionless now, while every person in that chapel watched her. The rain carried voices outside, but no one came after us.
I reached beneath my jacket and checked the envelope. Its paper had softened along one corner. I folded my body around it, shielding it from the weather, then pulled out the faded photograph.
Ethan Pierce and Olivia stood beneath a bright sky twelve years earlier. I recognized my own face before I recognized the woman beside me. Olivia's hand rested over the curve of her stomach. Her expression held a quiet certainty I had spent nine years trying not to remember.
I had believed she died nine years ago. That belief had shaped every year after: the rooms I chose, the work I accepted, the future I allowed myself to imagine. Victoria had known I was building my life on a grave.
Lucy watched me study the photograph. When my hand lowered, she touched the image with one wet finger, then touched the envelope. Her eyes moved from my face to the chapel doors. She needed me to keep moving, but she did not know whether I would move toward her or away from her.
I put the photograph back and secured the flap beneath my jacket. The checks remained dry. Their green edges showed through the envelope's opening, each one carrying Olivia Bennett's name and Victoria Hale's signature.
Lucy stumbled on the lower step.
I caught her before her knees struck the stone. She grabbed my sleeve with both hands and did not let go. Her fingers were cold enough to hurt through the fabric. For several seconds, she leaned against me, breathing fast, while I looked back at the chapel.
Victoria had crossed partway down the aisle. She had not followed us outside. She stood beneath the candle smoke, framed by ruined flowers and rows of witnesses. Her gaze fixed on the envelope under my coat.
I turned Lucy away from the doors.
At the edge of the steps, she opened the envelope again. Not fully. Only enough to pull out one check. Rain trembled on its surface, and I covered it with my palm. Along the bottom edge, beneath the signature, a dark processing stamp remained visible. The same bank name appeared on every check. Beside it, a branch number had been printed in small black type.
Lucy tapped that number, then tapped the back of the photograph.
The photograph had a pale rectangular mark where something had once been attached. Under the mark, faint handwriting remained: Olivia Bennett, followed by the same branch number.
Not an address. Not a location. A place where Olivia had received Victoria's money, again and again.
Lucy folded the check back into the envelope. Then she moved closer, placing her shoulder against my arm. She still watched me carefully, waiting for betrayal. I understood why. The envelope was not proof to her unless I protected it.
I tucked it inside my shirt, beneath the jacket, and buttoned the coat around it.
Rain filled the silence between us. Behind the doors, the chapel remained full of people who had seen my wedding collapse. Ahead waited no certainty, only Olivia's name, the bank branch number, and the fact that Lucy had come to me because someone was dying tonight.
I stepped off the last stone.
May you like
Lucy followed.
I would find that branch before doing anything else. The checks had given us one direction, and I committed to it without knowing whether Olivia would still be alive when we arrived.
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