Page 43 of Back to December
LAILA
The stormthat’s been brewing for a week is finally here. Two of them, actually. One tied to Ella and Luke. The other to everything I thought I knew.
It’s a gross kind of irony that I’m standing in a literal fairytale reception area overlooking the Jackson’s pumpkin patch while my world tilts dangerously off kilter. We pulled off something that felt impossible—a wedding in the middle of the bicentennial of Ever After Farm’s fall festival—and Ella is nowhere to be found.
“Does anyone have eyes on Ella?” I panic-whisper into my mouthpiece.
“We’re looking,” Luke answers, his voice cracking on the last syllable. “I think your mom has her somewhere.”
That sentence steals air from my lungs.
For a second, all I hear is the wind rustling leaves on the trees and Holly and Cade exchanging vows from a few hundred yards away.
“She what?”
“I’ll check the old barn,” Sam says. “It’sout of the way.”
“Luke,” I say this time a little more forcefully. “Why would my mother have Ella somewhere?”
Luke sighs. “That’s a long, complicated answer.”
“Try a short one,” I snap.
I know Luke is worried sick about Ella, but I can’t manage the situation when I don’t have all the facts.
“Your mom said this wedding had to go off without a hitch, or Ella would lose her parents’ farm.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” I press my fingers to my eyes. “Ella was done with Mom. She fulfilled her last contract. Momhatesit here, Luke. What on earth could she have to gain by doing that?”
“Laila,” he says quietly. “She doesn’t just hate Enchanted Hollow—she hates Ella. She always has. This was leverage.”
My stomach twists. Of course, it was. Everything with my mother is leverage.
My phone vibrates in the pocket of my dress.
Bridget
Go to our channel.
I breathe out a sigh of relief. Maybe she doesn’t know Ella is missing. She sometimes switches off her headset temporarily so she can enjoy the ceremony. We usually run such a tight ship that it never matters, because Ella and I compensate.
But there’s nothing normal about this wedding.
I change the channel on my pack and test the waters.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
She pauses. “Call it twintuition, but something feels off.”
“Just a minor snag with the reception,” I say.
The words come out with a wince, because I hate lying.But there’s no sense ineveryonepanicking about Ella or whatever stunt my mother is pulling.
“Tell me what you need,” Bridget says. As usual, she’s the stoic one when chaos is literally erupting around us. “Holly and Cade are enjoying a moment of wedded bliss before we kick off the rest of this party.”
Thank goodness.
Whatever our mother has done or is doing didn’t affect their actual wedding vows, and I could literally weep with relief. We just have to keep working behind the scenes to keep it all running smoothly.
