Page 27 of Matrimonial Merger

“Getting a venue, a caterer, a DJ or a band, everything?”

“Didn’t you all just plan a huge engagement party at the Cultural Center? I got the invite by the way?—”

“Yes, I saw you on the RSVP yes list,” I said.

She furrowed her brow.

“What, I cannot look into who did and didn’t RSVP?”

“I am surprised that you care, but okay. Who are you?”

“I am taking care of wedding planning stuff for Daphne. I don’t want her focused on that right now with the trial.”

“That’s genuinely adorable. You’re going to make a really good husband. Okay, well follow me here. The Cultural Center is a huge venue. A beautiful venue. I am assuming you already have catering, a DJ, bartenders, and all the complicated bits. It’s a heavy lift, but you should enlist your mother and you can get it done.”

“That sounds like a nightmare,” I said. “She’s been?—”

“You need help. Everyone will be there. Just do the wedding and surprise your guests—and maybe the bride. If you truly want to take it off her shoulders, make it wonderful. She will be so relieved to just show up. I know I would be.”

“And if I fuck it all up?”

“Enlist her female family members. Call your planner. Round the troops up. It will work. Be happy. Love that woman. And get her that damn dress.”

It was a crazy idea, but I was left with only the wildest hairs to pursue.

9.DIDN’T DESERVE IT

Daphne

I heldmy mother’s hand in one hand and Dora’s in the other as I sat in a courtroom, back straight as I’d always been taught. I used my outfit to convey strength. I showed up in a dark teal dress—a color Chandler loathed on me and my favorite earrings. I wanted him to see me living proudly. The verdict awaited. It was either very good or very bad. Deliberations took only two hours—almost unheard of—and now we received the fated decision from the mouths of the people who held all my hopes—and Chandler’s fate—in their hot little hands.

To my surprise, Chandler was relatively calm. He looked convinced this was all a good sign. After all, we both knew a quick verdict could be very good for a defendant. I hoped it was the opposite, that we won.

“We find the defendant?—”

Dora squeezed my hand hardest. I knew her little heart was beating out of her compassionate little chest.

“Guilty.”

I’d warned everyonenotto celebrate this win, but Chloe still let out a little squeal of sheer joy on my behalf. Her squeal waslargely unheard over the wailing of Chandler’s mother and his very pregnant girlfriend who showed up to court.

The judge called us to order once more, and followed next steps while the women continued crying.

“When do they sentence him?” Delanie whispered.

“They don’t. Not today. I have to come back for a victim impact statement in a few weeks,” I whispered.

“What? Why?”

“It’s just that way,” I said. “It’s like that in the US, too—except on TV.”

Upon adjournment, I sat in disbelief watching a man I’d spent more than a decade with—a man I’d once loved with all my heart—be put in handcuffs and led away. His time with an ankle bracelet was over. For now, he would be in prison. Suddenly, he looked so small. The bailiff let him stand as his family and girlfriend hugged him tightly, the women sobbing as they did. It was surreal. He was gone. And likely, he was gone for years.

“Daphne, we should go,” Mum said.

“I… I need a minute,” I insisted. I just needed to see him led out to believe it.

“But darling?—”

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