Chapter 4 - Choosing Myself

"Hannah," I said, catching her at the top of the stairs. "Go get Dana. Now."

She did it without asking, and the three of us came down the staircase together. I stopped at the head of the aisle, where every guest could see me.

"I'm sorry to bring you all in like this," I said, and my voice held steadier than I expected. "There isn't going to be a wedding today. You came here for honesty, not a show."

A murmur went through the chairs.

Gregory shoved his way up the aisle, face red.

"You're humiliating us," he hissed.

"No," I said. "I'm saving myself."

My brother-in-law and Hannah moved in fast and walked him out before he could get another word out.

Later, after the last car had pulled away and the flowers were going soft on their stands, Dana lowered herself onto the bench next to me.

"I sat in my car for an hour this morning," she whispered, "trying to decide if I could go through with telling you. I was so scared you'd believe him instead of me."

"Tell me now. The name you wouldn't say last night."

She looked at her hands.

"It was Kevin. My brother. You know how he's always mixed up in something he shouldn't be."

I stared at her.

"I introduced them at that dinner last spring. I swear I didn't know they'd cook something up together, or that it would be aimed at you. When I heard his voice in that parking lot, I understood the whole thing at once. But I couldn't hand you his name until you'd already made your choice."

"That's why you couldn't wear the dress."

"I couldn't stand next to you carrying that and not tell you first."

I reached over and took her hand.

"You picked the truth over keeping me comfortable, Dana. That's the whole friendship, right there."

A few weeks later, I sat on my porch with a mug of tea and honey warming my hands. Hannah and Nathan sat on one side of me. Dana sat on the other.

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