Chapter 1 - The Crying Room
“That’s Lily.”
Ethan’s smile disappeared before anyone else heard the crying.
He ran from the wedding room and down the long cream-carpeted hallway. At the far end, he opened a white paneled door and found six-year-old Lily sitting alone in the dark.
Her flower-girl dress was wrinkled.
Her cheeks were wet.
Her small bouquet lay beside her.
“Lily, come here.”
She rushed into his arms.
Ethan lifted her carefully, supporting her back and legs while she buried her face against his tuxedo.
Victoria arrived behind him in her lace wedding gown.
“Ethan, I can explain.”
Lily gripped his lapel.
“She told me I wasn’t allowed at your wedding.”
The words changed him.
Ethan looked toward Victoria.
“You locked a child in here?”
“I did not lock anything.”
“You left her crying in a dark room.”
“She was disrupting the ceremony.”
Lily shook her head.
“I was quiet.”
Victoria glanced toward the guests gathering in the hallway.
“This is not the place.”
Ethan looked at the little girl trembling in his arms.
“No.”
“This is exactly the place.”
He pulled the gold band from his finger.
“Then there won’t be a wedding.”
Victoria’s face went white.
“You would cancel everything over a flower girl?”
Ethan held Lily closer.
“She is not a flower girl.”
A pause.
“She is my family.”
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Then Lily whispered something only he could hear.
“She said after you married her, I would have to leave your house forever.”
