Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
"Weston, wait." I hear Sheila call my name, and the guests are moving their head from me to Sheila and then back to me like it's an intense tennis match. I think about stopping for one second, and then as soon as I think about it, I hear Shelby's words play in my head again and again.
I shake my head and push open the two brown doors that lead to the hallway that separates the ceremony space from the event space. I'm not expecting to find Shelby right there by the door with her sisters beside her, ready to step in front of her. "Shelby." I say her name, and she looks at me with tears in her eyes, but then I see her blink them away, and I know that whatever little piece of understanding that she had in her body is gone, and in its place is anger.
Joseph stands in front of them. "Give me a chance to explain," Joseph says, and I wonder how stupid he really is. I knew he was dumb to some things, but this, it's almost comical how he thinks he can talk himself out of this.
"Oh, please explain." Shelby laughs at him bitterly. "I'd love for you to explain." She rolls her eyes now. "Because the email wasn't explanation enough. I might need for you to draw me a fucking diagram."
I can’t help but stop the laugh that comes out of me, and all eyes turn to me. "Oh, yes," I say. Pulling the bow tie away from my neck, I’m feeling suddenly suffocated, so I undo the button on the top. "Please explain how you have been fucking Sheila and wanted her to run away with you on your fucking wedding day." My voice goes higher at the end.
All eyes are on Joseph as he looks at me and then back at Shelby. "Please, it was a mi—"
"Don't you fucking dare," Shelby says between clenched teeth and holding up her hand. "Say it was a mistake." Shelby glares at him and roars out, "Don't you fucking dare give me that fucking excuse."
"It's," he starts to say. "It's not what it seems." My feet move two steps toward him as the anger rips through me.
"I'm pretty sure the email that you sent out the day before our fucking wedding was everything that it seemed to be." Her hands form into fists at her sides. "I'm done," she says, turning to walk away and stopping when the doors open. Sheila steps out, and the whole room feels like it's going to explode. I look toward Shelby, making sure she is okay. She puts her hand down, holding her sister's hand to make sure she holds her sister back.
She stands there looking at all of us with tears running all the way down her face. "Weston," she says. "Please." Her lower lip trembles. "I didn't mean—"
I clap my hands together, laughing at the craziness that this day has turned out to be. The anger runs through me as I look at this woman, the woman I was going to get down on one knee and ask to spend the rest of her life with me. The woman who I thought was mine but instead was lying to my face. "What didn't you mean to do to me? Lie?" I look at her, not really waiting for an answer as she puts her hand in front of her, her shoulders shaking as she closes her eyes and wipes the tears off her face with the back of her hand.
"Weston, please let me explain," she begs, and all I can do is shake my head.
"The only thing I want to hear from you is where you want me to send your shit that I have at my house," I say between clenched teeth.
"Please give me a chance." She brings her hand to her mouth to silence the sobs.
"Did you or did you not sleep with my best friend?" I look at her and wait for her to answer. I wait for someone to jump out of hiding and tell me that this is just a prank. I wait for someone to tell me that this isn't happening. I wait for someone to wake me up so I can be done with this nightmare. But she says nothing. She doesn't have to. The look on her face says it all.
Standing in front of her is making me utterly sick. I'm sick to my stomach that she lied to me. I'm sick to my stomach that I didn't fucking know what was apparently happening right in front of my face. Sick to my stomach that my best friend, who I thought would have taken a bullet for me, literally just shot me in the heart. I walk away, seeing Joseph looking at me, the guy who was supposed to be like a brother to me. "Ace," he says, and everything happens in slow motion, or maybe it was just like that in my head. My shoulder pulls back, and the next thing I know, my hand is balling into a fist, and I punch Joseph straight in the mouth. My hand explodes with pain as his head flies back, and he falls to the floor. The girls hiss out, and I look at my best friend on the floor on his side. His hand comes up to his mouth and then he pulls it back to see that there is blood on the side of his mouth. He leers at me, and all I can do is walk past him and straight to the bar, even though I know that there isn't enough booze in the world to make me forget that my life just fell apart.