Royal Chase

They sat down, and I told them quickly what had happened, that I was calling the wedding off, apologized for taking so long to get to this point, and what Sterling and his father had planned.

Talking about Dante was still too painful, so I left that part out.

My parents sat in silence, both looking at me thoughtfully. I prepared myself for the lecture. To be told about the money and time I had wasted, and how I had let both of them down.

Then my mother said, “Well, thank heavens. Took you long enough to throw that boy over.” She turned to my father. “I never liked him. I told you they were all up to something.”

“You were right.”

There was nothing they could have said that would have stunned me more. “What? I thought you were so excited for me to marry him. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because I didn’t want to influence your decision. I know we give your our opinions probably more than we should,” my mother said as she glanced at Daddy, “so I didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t call it off earlier because I was afraid of disappointing you both. I know that I’m always letting you down.”

My daddy put his arm around me. “Why on earth would you say that, Lemonade? We are so proud of you! Don’t you know that your mother and I are thrilled by everything you accomplish? That we will support you in any decision that you make? That we think you’re the most wonderful girl in the whole world?”

Tears burned the back of my throat and my chest ached. All this time, I thought I was disappointing them. And it was all in my head. They loved me and were proud of me.

“Maybe we should all just start saying what we actually feel and not worry about what anyone else will think,” I said. My parents nodded in agreement. “And I will pay you back for whatever y’all have paid for already.”

My father shook his head. “Don’t you worry about that for one second. You and your happiness are what matters, not the money.”

Then he hugged me, and my mother joined him to hug us both, and the tears I thought I could no longer cry sprang up.

“You leave everything to us,” my mother added, as she wiped the tears away from my eye makeup with a Kleenex. “We’ll make all the calls and take care of everything.”

I nodded, grateful and touched beyond words.

“First, the Browns and I are going to have a discussion,” Daddy said as he walked out of the room quickly. I didn’t envy Sterling or his father to be on the other end of that.

My mother kissed me on my cheek and then rubbed her lipstick away. “I’m going to send everyone home. So now all you have to do is go find the man that you’re really in love with and tell him there’s not going to be a wedding and that you are a free woman.”

I couldn’t tell her that I had ruined everything with Dante. That he didn’t want to see me. The stabbing heart pain was back. “There’s something I have to do first,” I told her.

Chapter 27

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

Wherever my father was confronting the Browns, it wasn’t in the study. The room was empty when I went in for the DVD. I took it and my father’s laptop and went up to my room. I changed out of my clothes into jeans and a T-shirt, preparing myself for what I was about to see.

I really hoped Taylor hadn’t been lying to me again. I wasn’t sure I could take much more of the hope-and-despair carousel. I heard the front door opening and closing and the sound of cars driving off as guests left.

Sitting on my bed, I put the DVD into the laptop and pressed “Play” when a screen popped up asking what I wanted to do.

It was the entire season of the show, and there was no way to skip to the end. So I had to fast-forward instead.

Maybe I would watch it later, when some of the pain had subsided and it didn’t feel so fresh and terrible.

I slowed down during the horseback riding group date and watched as Dante and I had our race. I remembered that Genesis had gone to help one of the girls whose horse had wandered off, and she went down toward the stream. She got the girl back on track, and a rider emerged from the woods.