Heather lowered my phone.
“Seth. You told me Natalie wanted this.”
“She does love the kids.”
“That’s not what I asked you.”
He turned on his sister.
“Don’t act like I forced you into anything. You were thrilled when I came up with this.”
Heather went pale.
“I was thrilled because you told me she agreed!”
I’d never seen her look that scared.
Heather and her husband, Colin, separated about a year ago. They share custody. But Colin works rotating shifts at a warehouse, so childcare is always a mess.
Heather works full-time processing insurance claims. She can’t exactly bring three little kids to her office.
“What about their daycare?” I asked her. “Can you call them? Get their spots back?”
“I already tried,” she said quietly. “Yesterday. Maddie’s teacher said she’d miss her, so I asked. The director said all three spots went to families on the waiting list.”
Seth waved his hand.
“We’ll figure something out.”
Heather spun toward him.
“You told me it was already figured out!”
His jaw got tight. Then he looked at me.
“Can we please stop turning this into a crisis? It’s our wedding day.”
I almost laughed.
“Our wedding day?”
“Yes.”
“The day you planned to marry me before you told me I was giving up my career?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Which part isn’t fair?”
He lowered his voice.
“People are going to hear you.”
There it was.
He wasn’t worried that he’d betrayed me. He wasn’t worried that he’d put his sister’s job at risk.
He was worried somebody might overhear.
I stepped closer to him.
“Did you honestly think I’d wake up Monday morning, find out I was supposed to be babysitting three children, and just not go to work?”
He looked at Heather. Then back at me.
“I thought we’d have a little time to talk about it after the wedding.”
“You told her I’d already agreed.”
“Because I knew we’d work it out.”
I looked at Heather.
“Did you ever think about asking me directly?”
She hesitated.
“I wanted to.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Seth said you were uncomfortable talking about leaving your job. He said you didn’t want everybody making a big deal about it.”
I turned back to Seth.
He didn’t say a word.
Out in the chapel, a bell chimed. Five minutes to two.
Seth looked at his watch.
“Okay. We need to get ready.”
He reached for me again. I stepped back.
“No. You and I need to talk. Alone.”
Heather opened her mouth.
“Please,” I said to her. “Just give us a minute.”
She nodded and left, clutching her phone.
Seth closed the door behind her. Then he turned around with the tired face of a man dealing with a problem somebody else caused.
“Look,” he said. “I know you’re upset.”
“You don’t know half of how upset I am.”
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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