I looked at Tallis. Was there anything I ever wanted to do in front of a crowd? I suddenly realized that there was.

I stepped past her and walked down the aisle even though there was no groom to greet me. Once there, I turned and spoke to our guests. “Hello, everyone!” I said brightly. “I’d like to welcome all of you to my wedding. Naturally, Fletch is supposed to be here to marry me and many of you have noticed that he’s not. The thing is… I don’t think he’s standing me up on our wedding day. I think he’s been genuinely held up. His phone is not working. So, instead of having the wedding first, I thought it would be okay if we gave him a little more time to get here and just reorganized our events. The food has already been set out, so if you’d all like to head into the hall, we’ll have dinner.”

As soon as people started standing up, Fletch’s mother rushed me. “What do you mean, he’s not here?”

I met her gaze steadily. “I’m not hiding him. I don’t know where he is. The only thing I know is that he would not have deserted me if he could help it. We have to hang on.”

She straightened herself. “What can I do to help?”

“You can get that look off your face. Until they kick us out of the church at midnight, this is still my wedding day, and if you can smile and have a good time, that would really help out. Don’t even look tense. Everything is going to work out just fine. Have faith in your son.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

A strange look crossed my soon-to-be mother-in-law’s face. “And you’re sure he hasn’t walked out on you?”

I stood firm. “Fletch would not do that. If he wanted to dump me, he would have told me to my face. He would have told you. He would not allow his family and friends to be inconvenienced at a non-existent wedding all night. If he wanted to dump me he would have no interest in humiliating me.”

My faith in him moved her. Her face changed. “I suppose all that is true,” she said softly. “I made a mistake just now when I asked you that. Of course, he would have told us.”

I nodded at her and sent her to join her husband.

My family was waiting in the wings, flocking toward me as soon as Fletch’s mother had gone. “What can we do?”

I grabbed my brother Ethan by the arm. “Make sure the microphone system in the hall works. I’m going to make an announcement later.”

“No problem,” he said as he left.

“What about the rest of us?”

I cracked my neck. “Go pretend to have a good time and if anyone asks anything, just say I said it all when I spoke up. Don’t cut the cake yet.”

Most of them left, but my mom hung back. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

“I don’t know if he will,” I replied. “There is someone really nasty out there who wants to get my attention this way. I can’t believe they would stoop this low. My instinct is to chase after him and find out what he has done with Fletch, but tonight, I have the frustrating job of staying still. He’ll come here and I have to be here when he gets here.”

“Who is trying to ruin your wedding?”

“Carver Criche.”

“He’s here,” my mother said. “He signed the guestbook.”