Willow was starting to feel dizzy with the possibilities of which woman Charlie had been seeing. She’d once been in Anna’s and Ben’s bedroom and seen those same patterned pillowcases that had been in that photograph. But… then again… she’d seen them at Emma’s too. It was a popular brand. Willow shook her head, as if trying to bat away the whirl of thoughts bombarding her.
Her eyes homed in on the lady celebrant waiting to signal Willow and Jerry. She was standing opposite Willow, at the other end of the aisle. To the celebrant’s left sat Charlie and Ben.
Willow’s face was a mask as she observed both men. Ben was whispering something in Charlie’s ear. He must have been relaying that his bride had arrived, because now Charlie’s head was swivelling round, seeking Willow out. His eyes locked on hers and he gave a smile that conveyed he was blown away by the vision patiently waiting at the entrance. Willow gave him a hard stare. She watched Charlie’s look of delight ebb away and become replaced by something else. Consternation.
The opening bars of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons rang out. Willow was instantly reminded of another time when she’d heard Charlie humming the same tune. It was the day he’d returned home after running “errands”. He’d been so pleased with himself after secretly and successfully booking their wedding. It was also the day he’d brought her here, to Goldhill Grange, and gone down on one knee in front of a packed restaurant.
She’d contributed nothing financially to this wedding. Charlie had insisted on paying for everything. His generosity had been unprecedented. Had he been making up for a guilty conscience?
But, then again, if he’d been having an affair, why had he asked her to marry him? He’d once been marriage-shy. What had changed his mind? And why the hurry? Willow could come up with only one answer. To try and break off his affair. To prove to the other woman that she meant nothing. That their relationship was over. But the woman had been reluctant to comply. And now that woman was angry.
An “Old Wives’ Tale” floated through Willow’s raging thoughts.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Was that why Anna had turned up at both Willow’s home and place of work? Because she was hellbent on pre-empting any marriage proposal? It still didn’t explain the anonymous phone calls at the library.
The celebrant was now smiling and nodding at Willow and Jerry. It was time to begin the slow walk down the aisle. Emma stationed herself behind Willow, and gave her a gentle prod.
Tentatively, Willow put one foot in front of the other. She was going through the motions, but her body felt like it had been hi-jacked. A part of her had detached and floated upwards. That part was now looking down on the beautiful bride walking towards her betrothed. There was her father handing her over to Charlie. And now Emma was lifting Willow’s veil and trying to take her flowers.
Willow whooshed back into her body and clung on to the bouquet. Emma gave her a puzzled look but didn’t object. Nobody had noticed the mobile nestling amongst the roses.
From the moment Willow had received that first text, everything had slid into slow motion. Maybe it only seemed that way because her mind was working flat out, flitting around like an adrenalised bee that had supped from a spilt energy drink.
Her brain had taken charge. Emotion had been shoved away. That could be dealt with later. Instead her mind had shifted into “Logic Mode”. It was sifting through facts at lightning speed.
Fact One: Emma and Anna had the same wavy brown hair as the unknown texter.
Fact Two: Emma and Anna both had a butterfly tattoo; but
Fact Three: neither seemed devastated to be at their lover’s wedding.
Something was off.
Tugging her eyes away from a worried looking Charlie, Willow scanned the guests at the front of the room.
There was her mother. Anita was giving Willow a watery smile. In one hand a lace hanky was ready to deal with any waterworks.
Her father had now slipped in alongside her mother and was staring at the celebrant, his eyes very bright.
Emma was fiddling with her posy. Was she texting? Willow half expected her mobile to give another buzz, but it remained silent.
Standing next to Emma was Karen. Like Willow’s mum and dad, Karen was looking emotional.
Next to Karen was Noah. He looked both handsome and utterly bereft. He met Willow’s gaze and the depth of his expression reminded her of long-ago lyrics about a picture painting a thousand words. Suddenly Willow knew what she had to do.
Tearing her eyes away from Noah, Willow gazed at the celebrant. Words were being said. Guests were being welcomed. There was a bit of chat about winter weddings and a day full of joy. And suddenly formal lines were being said. Willow automatically found herself repeating the celebrant’s words. There was then a pause. Guests were informed that Charlie and Willow would now say their own special vows to each other, before being pronounced husband and wife.
Charlie looked at Willow, before taking both her hands in his. For a moment he struggled to speak, but then, hesitantly, started to pay tribute to Willow.
‘Sometimes we don’t realise love is in our lives until we’re in danger of losing it,’ he began.
Charlie’s voice was so low, Willow doubted whether anyone else could even hear him.
‘Sometimes we make mistakes,’ he continued.
He was picking his words carefully. So carefully that Willow suspected Charlie had abandoned any previously rehearsed speech. He’d caught her expression as she’d waited in the doorway and thrown away the script. Now he was speaking from the heart. And possibly his words were also for someone else in this room. Someone he wanted to pay attention as he rammed home these words. Charlie’s voice was getting stronger as he now asserted his message.
‘You are the only woman for me, Willow, and you are the only woman with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.’
Out of her peripheral vision, Willow observed someone losing a battle with tears.
‘Willow?’ prompted the celebrant.
She looked at Charlie. He was looking more relaxed now. Like a weight had been removed from his shoulders. He was on the home stretch. Willow was by his side. The marriage was well and truly underway. They were only another minute or two from being legally wed. Charlie gave her a nod of encouragement, and Willow cleared her throat.
Her first words were croaky.
‘Marriage is about love. And trust.’
As her words began to flow, she found her stride, warming to her task, one eye on Charlie, the other on their guests.
‘Today I was given a gift.’
Charlie squeezed her hand.
‘And that gift was truth.’
Willow withdrew her phone from her bouquet and pressed the screen.
‘Those at the back won’t be able to see these images.’
As Willow held the phone aloft, she saw confusion amongst the guests. She also noted the colour draining from Charlie’s face. He was starting to make an awful gurgling sound and was quite incapable of speech.
Emma was looking horrified. She was staring at Willow as if she’d sprouted two horns and a devil’s tail and was clutching her own mobile as if a crucifix.
Willow ignored them both.
‘There will be no wedding today. Instead there will be a celebration of truth.’
Charlie couldn’t take another moment. Breaking away, he stalked down the aisle and slammed out of the ceremony room. For a moment Ben looked like he was going to go after Charlie, but then had a change of heart.
His eyes flicked back to Willow. Her finger was hovering over her mobile. What was she doing? Ben didn’t know. All he did know was that Charlie might have paid Sophie off, but there had been another woman. A woman who wouldn’t go away. A woman that Charlie had needed to wine and dine in order to smooth the path of severance. Ben had only known that person as Kev.
Willow’s finger touched her phone’s screen, and Ben instinctively knew that this woman’s identity was about to be
revealed.
As the merry tune of another mobile filled the ceremony room, all eyes swivelled to see who the mystery person was. Willow stared at her. It was a look of utter contempt. She turned back to the congregation.
‘It’s a shame to waste a beautiful wedding breakfast and so much champagne, so everyone is invited to join me at the reception. Everyone apart from you’ – she pointed to the owner of the still ringing mobile – ‘Karen.’
Ben stared at Karen in shock.
Karen Everest.
K. Everest.
K. Ev.
Kev.
Sixty-Three
Karen had always enjoyed basking in a spotlight of attention. She loved nothing more than being flattered and feted and having people say, “You have a daughter of thirty? No way!”
There was no need to admit that she’d started young. Too young. All that mattered was the positive reaction of people feeding her sense of self-image.
It pleased her that others thought she was a woman in her mid-thirties, not forties. It was one of the reasons why she’d always fluttered her eyelashes at younger men… to see if she could still “pull”. It salved her ego.
However, lately Karen’s self-esteem had taken a battering. Charlie had been the first one to deal a blow. He’d been up for plenty of no-strings fun in the bedroom until he’d got bored and wanted to give her the brush-off. That had hurt.
The second man to upset her ego had been the tattoo artist. Jezz. Karen had thought that sparks had been flying between them in the studio, but it had turned out he’d merely been leading her on. She had a nasty feeling that Jezz had regaled his mates with the story of the middle-aged woman who’d thought she was going to get lucky with him. The discovery that he’d been having a private laugh at her expense had been humiliating.
Karen knew she should embrace growing older gracefully. Hell, she was forty-six, not eighty-six. But it didn’t matter how many times she reminded herself that age was just a number, deep down that number jarred, because inside her heart she felt twenty-six.
Karen hadn’t meant to hurt Willow. And if she’d left her blasted mobile in Noah’s car, instead of trying to stuff it inside her tiny clutch bag with her lippy and box of confetti, then she’d never have been caught out. Unlike Emma, who was almost umbilically joined to her mobile, Karen was always losing phones. Consequently she only ever bothered with pay-as-you-go Sim cards and ancient mobiles bought off eBay. She’d intended, after today, to “lose” yet another phone. Emma had long ago given up programming her mother’s number into her own phone for this very reason. If Willow had shown Emma the unknown number of the person who’d sent those texts, it would have been unlikely that Emma would’ve twigged they’d been sent by her own mother.
Threading her way through the chuntering congregation, Karen elbowed her way over to Emma.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘I think you’re apologising to the wrong person,’ said Emma coldly.
Karen dared to look at Willow.
‘It was only ever meant to be a bit of fun,’ she implored. ‘It didn’t mean anything.’
Which wasn’t strictly true. Her feelings for Charlie had got out of hand long ago, even if they hadn’t been reciprocated. But there was no need to tell Willow that.
‘I didn’t want you throwing yourself away on a man who cheats.’
‘How incredibly thoughtful of you,’ said Willow sarcastically.
The guests were getting noisier. Fingers were now pointing at Karen. She could see that Jerry and Anita were attempting to push their way over. It was apparent that Anita was revving up for a noisy exchange of words. Charlie’s mother was slumped in her seat. Grace’s eyes locked on Karen’s. Her expression was an open book.
My son’s wedding has been wrecked because of you? A middle-aged woman! WHAT was my Charlie thinking of?
Now Grace was hauling herself to her feet. Her mouth had morphed into a mean line. It looked like she was going to join forces with Anita and have her say. But both women were going to have to get in the queue.
‘You’ve wrecked my best friend’s wedding,’ shouted Emma.
‘Mum, please tell me this isn’t true,’ said Noah, catching hold of Karen’s forearm.
Karen might have loved the spotlight, but this was one occasion where she wasn’t going to hang around and soak up the attention. She wanted out of here.
Shaking off Noah, she held up her clutch bag like a mini riot shield. Guests were starting to circle her like a predatory school of sharks. Shoving her way through them all, she followed Charlie’s footsteps and fled.
Willow watched Karen’s departure. Would she go after Charlie? Willow wondered if they might even end up together. And then she decided that she didn’t care. They both had the same appalling morals. They were welcome to each other.
Sixty-Four
Willow was still on autopilot. She knew that, when alone, emotions would descend like a wrecking ball. For now, she was managing to keep her chin up and her eyes dry.
The celebrant had offered Willow sincere condolences and said that hers wasn’t the first wedding where drama had been witnessed, and likely wouldn’t be the last.
Meanwhile, Noah and Ben had taken charge. On their say so, catering staff had hastily dismantled the top table, rearranging it to blend with the others. The seating plan had been speedily removed too, for which Willow was grateful. Everyone had stayed, apart from a couple of Charlie’s relatives and his devastated mother. Grace had been taken home and put to bed with a large medicinal brandy.
An outraged Jerry had insisted on making a completely revamped father-of-the-bride speech which had included what he’d do to Charlie if their paths ever crossed again. Everyone had then tucked into the wedding breakfast and, despite the awfulness of the occasion, there had also been some subdued laughter. Even Willow had found herself managing to raise a smile here and there.
Noah and Ben also took charge of warning the evening guests what had happened. Appalled, they paid their commiserations to Willow. She urged every single one of them to stay and celebrate her “day of truth”.
Throughout, Emma had been sticking to Willow like superglue. Unlike the bride, she kept periodically bursting into tears.
‘I can’t believe Mum would do such a thing,’ she kept saying, over and over. ‘I’m so sorry.’
But before Emma could say this mantra one more time, Anna had broken away from Drummond and was now approaching both Emma and Willow. Ben spotted Anna making her way over, and quickly followed suit. Willow didn’t notice Emma glancing first at Anna and then Ben. She looked horribly uncomfortable.
‘I can’t keep my distance from you any longer, Willow,’ said Anna.
She was agitated and very red in the face.
‘I’ve been biding my time to speak to you and waiting until you’re not surrounded by people. You see, I owe you a huge apology. Will you accept it? Even though I knew Charlie was a cheater, I should have kept my gob shut. It wasn’t for me to tell you not to marry him.’
‘Well thank goodness I didn’t,’ said Willow giving a mirthless laugh. ‘How did you know he’d been unfaithful?’
‘Because I told her,’ said Ben, interrupting. ‘I’ve known Charlie for many years and, rightly or wrongly, I’ve been loyal to him. But I’ve loved you like a sister, Willow, and have come this close’ – he held a forefinger and thumb a millimetre apart – ‘to telling you. However, prior to his marriage proposal, Charlie promised me that he really had changed. And I believed him. He was over the moon that you were wearing his ring and said he couldn’t wait to be a married man. But I guess you won’t have him back now, will you?’
Willow shook her head.
‘No. Absolutely not. He might insist he’s changed but, then again’ – her thoughts flipped back to Noah’s kiss – ‘something in me has changed too. Let’s just say that I think today’s outcome was actually a good thing.’
‘He’s not all bad,’ said Ben.
Willow shrugged.
‘Charlie is no longer of any importance to me.’
‘Brave words,’ said Ben.
He put an arm around Willow’s shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze.
‘Can you forgive me for not telling you about his infidelities? It’s been horrible having divided loyalties between the two of you, which was why I confided in a couple of people. Anna was one of them.’ He nodded at his ex-girlfriend. ‘If I’d kept it to myself, I’d have gone bonkers.’
‘And once Ben had told me,’ said Anna, picking up the reins of conversation, ‘I then wanted to tell you. But I was scared to lose your friendship. So instead, I tried to warn you off but without giving the reason why. And, in hindsight, that was the wrong thing to have done because I lost your friendship anyway. After all, you didn’t invite me to your wedding. I came as Drummond’s plus-one.’
‘I’m glad you’re here now,’ said Willow sincerely.
‘And while we’re being honest’ – Emma piped up, looking sheepish – ‘it was me who made those anonymous phone calls to the library.’
‘What?’ said Willow looking dumbfounded. ‘But how did you know Charlie had been unfaithful?’
‘For the same reason as Anna,’ said Emma, now looking timorously at Ben’s ex-girlfriend. ‘I’m the other person Ben confided in about Charlie. You see, Ben and I were seeing each other. Seeing… but not seeing. If you get my drift. He wasn’t a free agent. So I owe you an apology too, Anna. But, unlike Charlie, I promise you that Ben was never a cheater. We had feelings for each other. But nothing happened. He was with you and he wanted to make things work.’
Willow was so gobsmacked she couldn’t say anything. How many more surprises was today going to hold?
Anna gave Emma a rueful smile.
‘Ah, well, there’s something else I also need to confess. Ben and I wouldn’t have worked out in the long-term anyway. I’m not proud to admit that I’d started seeing Drummond while I was still with Ben.’
Her eyes swivelled to her ex-boyfriend, who was looking flabbergasted.
Willow's Wedding Vows: a laugh out loud romantic comedy with a twist! Page 28
