Paige didn’t ask me a single question.
She looked at Seth. Then she took my hand.
“Okay,” she said.
Seth followed us out into the hallway.
“Wait. Nobody’s canceling anything.”
I turned around.
“I am.”
His face went hard.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“Over babysitting?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
I looked him in the eye.
“Because you knew I might say no. So you made the decision without me. And then you tried to make sure I couldn’t change it.”
He opened his mouth. I kept going.
“That’s not how I want to start a marriage.”
Reverend Thomas came down the hallway a minute later. He’s a kind man in his sixties. He’d spent the last month helping us write our vows.
He looked at both our faces.
“Would you two like a few minutes alone?”
“We already talked,” I said.
He nodded slowly.
“Are you asking to postpone?”
I looked at Seth. He still looked like he was waiting for me to stop being unreasonable.
“No,” I said. “I’m asking you to tell everyone there won’t be a wedding.”
Seth swore under his breath.
Reverend Thomas suggested we go back into the bridal room. A minute later, my mom came in.
She stopped dead in the doorway.
“Honey? What’s wrong?”
Explaining meant admitting that the man I trusted had been secretly making decisions about my whole future.
I sat down in front of the mirror.
“I can’t marry him, Mom.”
Her eyes filled up.
“Did something happen?”
I nodded.
She sat down beside me.
“Do you want to tell me?”
“Not right now.”
She took my hand.
“Okay.”
That’s all she said.
She didn’t mention the money. She didn’t mention the relatives. She just accepted it.
And for the first time that afternoon, I broke down and sobbed.
Seth appeared in the doorway.
“Can I please talk to my fiancée?”
My mom stood up.
“She said she doesn’t want to talk right now.”
He looked past her at me.
“Natalie. You’re throwing away three years.”
I wiped my face.
“I’m not the one who threw them away.”
He shook his head.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
And even then, the good memories came flooding back.
Seth driving two hours to fix my dad’s porch. Bringing me soup when I had the flu. Holding my hand all night in the hospital when my grandmother died.
Those moments were real.
That’s what made this so hard to understand.
Reverend Thomas asked Seth to give us some space. This time, he went.
A few minutes later, the organ music stopped.
I heard voices out in the sanctuary. Chairs shifting. Then Reverend Thomas speaking into the microphone.
He told everyone the ceremony had been canceled. He apologized. He asked them to respect the family’s privacy.
He didn’t explain anything else.
I’ll always be grateful to him for that.
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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