Grabbing my purse, I reached for my happy box. And as I unfurled my little scrolls of paper, they weren’t having their regular effect on me. I didn’t feel better. Not even the one with the five gold stars on it. Instead, all I saw was Camden picking up the box off the ground, reading the words to me, and it was like I was back in front of that hotel, when he was taking care of me. I wanted him here so badly that my entire body ached from longing.
I made the mistake of getting on my phone, just to see the latest. There weren’t any messages from my attorney, Gerald, but Desiree had forwarded me a link. It was a story from Amber’s Instagram. I clicked on it.
“I hired Something Borrowed because my friends were all too selfish to stand up with me. And that company promised me discretion. That no one would know. Then the owner, Rachel Vinson, gets splashed all over the internet and shows up at my wedding! Everyone knew that I had to hire bridesmaids! I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life. She ruined everything. I am going to sue her and shut her and her deceitful operation down.”
That made me feel sick. All I ever tried to do was give women the weddings of their dreams and support them. And here was someone saying that I’d wrecked her day.
My doorbell buzzed, and for one heart-stopping moment, I hoped it was Camden. I let myself entertain a brief fantasy that somehow he’d shown up and would take me in his arms and make all of this okay. But that was stupid. He’d made it pretty clear things were over and hadn’t rushed back to New York just to look me up.
I went over to the door and pushed the button. “Yeah?”
“It’s me.” Krista. “I have something you’re going to want. Let me up.”
I was tempted to tell her to go away but was too intrigued by what she might have. I pushed the buzzer to let her in the front entrance and unlocked my apartment door for her.
My faith was rewarded when she walked in with a pizza from Waldy’s, one of my favorite places in the city.
“Pepperoni, extra sauce, and light cheese,” she said. “Just the way you like it.”
She set it down on my kitchen counter and I folded my arms. “I feel like this is an information pizza.”
“It absolutely is an information pizza,” she said, walking over to my couch and getting comfortable. “But in both receiving and giving info. Because I’m guessing you haven’t been online recently and I think there’s something you should see.”
I got out two plates and grabbed slices for both of us and then joined her on the couch. “Oh, trust me, I’ve been online. I’ve seen all the carnage. I’m well aware of the fact that we’re about to be sued into oblivion and that we may all be out of a job tomorrow.”
She took her plate and set it down on her lap. “I’m talking about this.” She showed me her phone, and there was a clip of Sadie talking. My heart pounded painfully in my chest, worried about how much more damage she could do.
“Sadie must be so mad at me,” I said.
Krista ignored me and turned up the volume on her phone, and Sadie’s voice filled the room.
“Hey, everyone. Well, I guess you’ve all seen my wedding footage by now. I left early so I think most of you saw it before I did. But there’s two things you need to know. First, that my mother is an adult and made her own choices. She has personal issues that affect me and my family. I know I’ve hidden that part of my life from everyone, and I shouldn’t have because I’m not the only person dealing with something like this and should have shared. Maybe I could have helped someone. Maybe you could have helped me. I don’t know.
“And two, Rachel Vinson is a goddess. Because of my mom and her addiction, I’ve always kept people at arm’s length. I don’t have really close friends that I could ask to stand up with me on the most important day of my life. I heard about Rachel and her business, which is ingenious, by the way, and hiring her was one of the best things I’ve ever done. She and all of the women she works with are amazing and you guys would be lucky to hire her. I’ve talked to so many of you online about your weddings, about your bridesmaids getting wasted or being petty or just acting awful and making your wedding day harder. I didn’t have any of that. I had the best support system in the world who did nothing but put me first. Rachel did everything in her power to make this the most unbelievable wedding ever. Even when things went wrong, and they so obviously did, she always had my back. I’m so thankful to her. I didn’t just have an amazing maid of honor, I got a new friend.”