Chapter 11 - THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
Sydney was taken to the hospital for observation.
The baby was unharmed.
Jason was taken somewhere else.
Meline learned the news from Rebecca at 4:30 that afternoon.
The wedding flowers were already being removed.
Hotel employees dismantled the arch beneath which she had almost exchanged vows.
Meline watched from the empty ballroom.
“It’s strange,” she said.
“What?”
“I thought I’d feel embarrassed.”
Rebecca stood beside her.
“Do you?”
“No.”
Meline looked at the abandoned chairs.
“I feel relieved.”
Her parents remained at the hotel.
Robert had been questioned for three hours.
Elaine had spent most of that time insisting she knew nothing.
Meline did not believe her.
Neither did the agents.
Her phone rang.
Mom.
Meline almost ignored it.
Then answered.
“What?”
Elaine began crying immediately.
“Meline, please come upstairs.”
“No.”
“Your father needs you.”
Meline looked toward the elevator.
“For what?”
“The bank froze the company accounts.”
“Good.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because they may contain stolen money.”
Elaine’s voice hardened.
“We are your parents.”
“Yes.”
“You cannot let strangers humiliate your father.”
Meline almost laughed.
“You helped him try to steal my identity.”
“That is not what happened.”
“Mom.”
Meline’s voice became quiet.
“I heard you.”
Elaine stopped.
“I heard you say I would sign because I always choose the family.”
A long silence.
Meline continued.
“You knew exactly what you were doing.”
“We were desperate.”
“So you chose me as collateral.”
“You have more than enough.”
There it was.
Not an apology.
Entitlement.
Meline closed her eyes.
“How much did you know about Jason and Sydney?”
Elaine hesitated.
Too long.
“Mom.”
“I knew they had become close.”
“How close?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“You heard him talk about the baby.”
Elaine began crying again.
“I thought Sydney would handle it.”
Meline felt sick.
“You were going to let me marry him.”
“We needed the loan.”
The answer came almost as a whisper.
Meline stared at the empty altar.
Everything inside her went still.
“You were willing to let me marry a man who got my sister pregnant because you needed money.”
Elaine sobbed.
“It was complicated.”
“No.”
Meline’s voice did not rise.
“It was simple.”
“You chose yourselves.”
She ended the call.
Rebecca had heard enough to understand.
“You okay?”
Meline put the phone away.
“No.”
Then she looked at the workers removing the last white roses.
“But I will be.”
Across town, Sydney woke in a hospital room.
Terrence was sitting beside the window.
For one hopeful second, she believed he had come back for her.
May you like
Then she saw the envelope in his hands.
Divorce papers.
