Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Stood.
Noah stopped halfway down the aisle, and the silence seemed to widen around him.
Emily turned toward him with the practiced expression she used whenever something threatened to become inconvenient.
"Noah, please."
He did not answer her immediately.
His eyes remained on Anna.
"Did she say that to you?"
Anna wished somebody else could answer.
For years, her family had trained her to soften every uncomfortable truth before speaking it aloud.
She had been told that Emily was younger, that Emily was sensitive, that Emily had always struggled with guilt about the fire, and that Anna was strong enough to let small things go.
This did not feel small anymore.
"Yes," Anna said.
Emily exhaled sharply.
"I was trying to fix a seating problem."
Margaret stepped into the aisle.
"A seating problem doesn't require telling your sister that her presence ruins your wedding."
Judith rose halfway from her pew.
"Maybe we should all calm down."
Margaret looked at her.
"I am calm."
That answer somehow made the room quieter.
Thomas stood beside his wife and adjusted his jacket.
"Anna doesn't like attention," he said.
"We can handle this privately."
Anna felt something cold settle in her chest.
Her father's sentence sounded reasonable, which was how the Mercer family had hidden unreasonable things for years.
They never shouted in public.
They redirected.
They minimized.
They waited until a closed door could make the uncomfortable person easier to manage.
Noah reached Anna's row.
"Do you want to stay here?"
It was such a simple question that Anna almost cried.
Nobody in her immediate family had asked it.
"Yes."
Noah nodded.
"Then you stay."
Emily stared at him.
"You're seriously doing this in front of everyone?"
"I didn't start this in front of everyone."
The photographer lowered his camera.
The officiant quietly closed the book in his hands.
Emily looked around and seemed to realize that every face she had arranged for photographs now belonged to a witness.
Her cheeks flushed.
"Fine," she said.
"She can stay."
Margaret's expression hardened.
"That isn't permission you get to grant."
Emily's eyes flashed.
For a second, Anna saw the little girl Emily had once been, furious whenever someone refused to reorganize the room around her feelings.
Then the bridal mask returned.
"Can we please continue?"
Noah looked toward the altar, but he did not move.
"I need five minutes."
Emily's face changed again.
"For what?"
"To understand what just happened."
He turned toward the side corridor beside the altar.
Margaret followed him.
Before leaving, she rested one hand lightly on the back of Anna's wheelchair.
"Do not move unless you want to."
Anna nodded.
Her mother leaned forward the moment Margaret disappeared.
"Why did you say it out loud?"
Anna turned slowly.
Judith's face was pale with embarrassment, not concern.
"Because she said it out loud to me first."
"She whispered it."
Anna stared at her mother.
The distinction was so absurd that it almost made her laugh.
Thomas stepped closer.
"Your sister is under tremendous pressure today."
"And I'm under what?"
Neither parent answered.
Across the aisle, guests pretended not to listen.
Emily stood alone in the center of the church, bouquet held rigidly against her waist.
Then she leaned toward Anna again, but this time she did not smile.
"You always do this."
Anna's stomach tightened.
"Do what?"
Emily's eyes turned colder.
"Make everyone choose you."
Before Anna could respond, the vestry door opened.
Noah stepped back into the church.
May you like
He was no longer wearing the expression of a groom eager to reach the vows.
He looked like a man who had just realized the day he planned to begin his marriage might instead reveal why he should not.
