Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) (14 page)

“I know, I’m sorry,” I say as I turn my head
to avoid looking at her. I don’t want to start crying.

“Madie, please don’t be sorry for starting
your life with Cole. You deserve it and don’t let anyone try to get
in the way of that.”

I know she’s referring to my family, and she
is 100% right. Sienna is the best friend I could have ever hoped
for. I want her to find happiness, too.

“Same for you! You have to let yourself be
happy, let your guard down.” I see a small smile spread across her
face.

“You mean with Ace, right?” she asks
knowingly. Duh, of course I mean with Ace, but I decide not to say
another word. Even I’m getting sick of harassing her about it.

I go to use the bathroom; while in there, I
hear voices and then yelling. I open the door but hang back and
listen. I don’t believe it, it’s Ellie. She has a lot of nerve
showing up here.

“She hasn’t called any of us back. I can’t
believe she would do this to us,” Ellie exclaims innocently.

“She actually accused me of getting the
wedding canceled,” Ellie adds. “What does that even mean? Is the
wedding really canceled?”

Poor Sienna, I can’t leave her out there to
take their abuse alone.

“Can you excuse me for one second, please?” I
hear Sienna say. She comes into the bathroom.

“You need to stay here,” she whispers. “I’m
going to talk to her and see if I can get to the bottom of this.
Maybe she will let something slip.”

“No way,” I whisper back. “I’m not leaving
you alone with that.” I point to the front lobby. I can tell Sienna
is up to something; she has a gleam in her eye.

“Just stay here and be quiet,” she demands. I
attempt to argue, but she quickly runs back to the front. I lean my
head to the door so I can hear what’s happening. There isn’t any
more yelling, so it’s hard to hear what they are saying. I hear
Ellie say that she didn’t do anything and that I’m acting like a
spoiled child. Crap! I hate not knowing what’s happening. I finally
hear the door chime; she must have left. I practically run out into
the lobby.

“What happened and why did you tell me to
stay in the back?” Sienna looks completely worn out, and I know the
feeling. Sienna rubs her face in her hands.

“Long story short, she went on and on about
how horrible you acted after everything they have done for you.
Also something about breaking special family bonds, blah, blah.”
She rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I heard her say I was acting like a
spoiled child.” I frown and fold my arms like, well, like a spoiled
child. They should talk, I think to myself.

“Just try to ignore her,” Sienna says as she
walks around, straightening up the office. “Ellie insists that she
isn’t behind this.”

I knew she would deny it, and she will
continue to, probably forever. Sienna stops what she’s doing, and I
can tell she’s thinking about something.

“What are you thinking?”

“Honestly?” she asks carefully. “I’m not sure
she did this.”

What? She can’t be serious. What kind of mind
control do these girls have? Somehow, they manage to manipulate
everyone in my life. Truthfully, I’m not that surprised because
they’ve been doing this since they were kids. Whatever, it doesn’t
matter anymore anyway.

“OK,” I say nonchalantly. “I don’t care about
who did this anymore. My wedding is going to happen. It may not be
how I planned it, but sometimes things don’t turn out the way we
want, right?”

Sienna doesn’t say anything, but she nods in
agreement. She knows this better than anyone. The truth is, whether
or not Ellie is responsible for this, it was time for me to
confront her, just like Susan said. Maybe I should’ve gone about it
in a different way, but at the time it was the only way I knew how
to express how I felt.

“You can do what you want, but maybe you
should think about it for a few days and then sit down and talk to
her.” She moves away from me after she says that, which is silly of
course.

“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” I say
doubtfully.

Chapter 10

No! This can’t be happening again; we found a
new place for my wedding. Why is the door locked? I’m trying to get
inside but there’s a huge deadbolt on the door.

“I told you she would mess this up,
Grandmother,” Ellie says.

“Yeah, mad Madie can’t seem to do anything
right and just look at her dress,” Stephy adds, giving me a
disgusted look.

I look down to see my wedding gown covered in
tomato sauce. No, no, no . . . this can’t be real. I was thirteen
when I sat in that plate of sauce.

“You did this,” I yell, pointing my finger at
my cousins. Everyone starts laughing; I look around me and see all
my wedding guests watching us. Cole will fix this; where is he? He
has to be here; it’s our wedding day.

“Whoa, look at that bride. What happened to
her dress? Did she roll around in the kitchen at Olive Garden?” I
look up to see Cole doing a comedy routine at the altar.

“Cole, what are you doing?”

“Relax, babe. I just have to finish this
routine, then we can get married.” He keeps telling jokes about my
dress.

“Stop!” I scream and jump out of my bed. I
look around in a panic. I’m still in my bedroom; my heart is racing
and I’m sweating.
Calm down, Madison, it was just a bad
dream
, I tell myself.

It’s 4:30 a.m. I lay back down but can’t fall
asleep. I know I said I was just going to move on from this, but I
keep replaying what Sienna said, and she was serious too. She
doesn’t think Ellie was behind this, but then the question is who
was? Or maybe it was just an honest mistake on Sienna’s part. I
need to accept the fact that I may never know what really happened.
I wonder what Stephy thinks about all of this. I guess it’s not
really fair that I always include her with Ellie. Don’t get me
wrong, I think she’s far from innocent, but I don’t think she’s
that bad. I roll over and try to put it all out of my mind.

I get to work early the next day despite only
sleeping about four hours last night. Surprisingly, I’m feeling
pretty good other than the dreaded phone call I have to make to my
grandmother. I’m becoming a master at avoiding her calls. Who
knows, maybe I will manage to get away with this for a while.

I decide to tell my co-workers about the
change of venue. You would have thought it’s the end of the world
by their responses.

“This is horrible news. I told all of my
friends I was going to an event at the Four Seasons,” Lauren
whines. “How could this happen?”

“What are you talking about?” Caycee
exclaims. “Your wedding is like . . . next week.”

I give them the condensed version of the
story. There’s really no reason for them to know every detail, and
I explain that they will be getting the information for the new
location. As I’m talking about the beach resort, I start to feel a
little anxious. What if something else goes wrong? What if this was
all a sign that my marriage is doomed?

I try to get to work, but I really didn’t
expect that I would have to spend the next fifteen minutes
consoling Caycee. You would have thought it was her wedding that
was canceled.

I’m working until close, and as I finish my
last client, Lauren informs me that I have a visitor. When I get to
the front, I find Grandmother waiting for me. I’m not really sure
what to say. I don’t think Grandmother has ever stepped foot in my
salon. Suddenly, I feel like a kid who has just gotten into massive
trouble and has been sent to the principal’s office.

“Grandmother . . . what a nice surprise,” I
say nervously. She doesn’t show any emotion. My time of dodging her
has come to an end. Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted. I
can already tell that this is going to be a lot of fun.

“Madison, because you haven’t returned any of
my calls, I had no choice but to come here.” She takes a good look
around.
Well, it’s nice to see you too
, I think but refrain
from saying it out loud.

“OK . . . if you give me a few minutes to
finish up, we can walk to the café next door and talk.” I don’t
give her a chance to respond as I quickly go to my station and
clean up.

A little while later, we walk silently to the
Caffeine Café next door. I love this place; it’s warm and cozy, and
the coffee aromas are amazing. Not to mention all of the delicious
treats. I remind myself that I have given up sugar forever after my
cookie binge from the other night.

We sit down at a corner table, neither of us
saying a word. I really hate the silence; it’s so uncomfortable not
knowing who should speak first. Luckily, Grandmother has no problem
starting this conversation.

“Madison, I have tried to understand what has
happened over these last few days. I’ve considered that you’ve had
some sort of stress-induced breakdown. Perhaps the stress of the
wedding, your work, or maybe just getting married in general.” She
starts fidgeting around in her seat. I don’t believe this; she
honestly thinks I’ve had a nervous breakdown. The next thing I know
she will try to have me committed.

“Grandmother, I . . .” She holds her hand up
to stop me.

“First, let me finish,” she says firmly. I
close my mouth and stop talking. “Maybe you aren’t ready to get
married and that’s alright, but regardless of your reasons, your
behavior is . . .” She stops talking and shakes her head. I wait to
see if she is finished, interrupting her again definitely won’t
help my case. She doesn’t say anything, so I start talking, and I
don’t stop. She doesn’t show much emotion until my tears starting
falling.

“You have never once considered my feelings,”
I say in between my tears. “I’m grown-up now, so it shouldn’t
matter, but you sat back and let me be bullied by my own family.
You made excuses for them, there were never any consequences for
how they treated me, and at times you too were a part of it.” The
tears have slowed and I start to feel stronger than I have ever
felt. Something comes over me, and I’m not afraid to admit my
feelings. I could totally stand up on my chair and yell, “I am
woman, hear me roar.” Not that I would because I could never show
my face in here again, and I love the lemon pound cake way too
much.

“How many times have you insulted my career?”
I ask, and then suddenly I have the urge to take a miserable trip
down memory lane. “Do you remember when Ellie, Stephy, and I
decided to put on the Christmas parade in the front yard? Do you
remember what happened?” I stop to give her a chance to say
something, but she just sits there, silent. Sadly, I’m not
surprised. It may seem silly now, but my cousins made me play a
donkey in that parade while they and all the other kids played the
Christmas princesses and princes. I cried the whole time, and
Grandmother told me that I needed to stop and that I needed to
accept that I wouldn’t always get my way.

I decide to continue the dreaded trip down
memory lane, so I remind her about the tomato sauce incident as
well as the fallout of when I repeated a grade and she told Aunt
Kate and my cousins. Not shockingly, Stephy had no problem
announcing that at my bridal shower.

When I have finally concluded my throw up of
the mouth, I look at her and wait. When she does finally speak, she
surprises me.

“Do you know how lucky you were to have both
of your parents doting on you? A parent’s love and devotion is
something special and you don’t appreciate it until you realize
it’s gone.” She clears her throat and continues. “When their father
left, the three of them were devastated. Understandably so, and I
vowed from that day that I would always be there for those girls. I
know the feeling, the feeling of . . .” she hesitates, “the feeling
of a parent leaving, and I would never wish that on anyone.” At
first I have no clue what she is talking about, but then I remember
my mother telling me that her grandfather left when Grandmother was
young and she never really got over it.

“I’m sorry that happened to them,” I say
sympathetically. “But how is that my fault?”

Grandmother is clearly very uncomfortable,
and I think she is finally getting what I’m saying.

“It’s not.”

She looks down and her face softens. “I
suppose I went out of my way to try to make things easier for them,
at your expense. That was wrong of me; I can see that now.”

I’m expecting a “but” about now, so I wait
for it. She doesn’t make any more excuses, but she doesn’t exactly
apologize either. Oh well, baby steps I guess. Luckily, I’m
mentally prepared for what’s about to come.

“Anyway, regarding the subject at hand.
Ellenor says that you accused her of canceling the wedding. Please
tell me what on earth is going on.”

I scrunch up my face and relive every detail
since Sienna delivered the bad news. When I finish explaining,
Grandmother looks shocked and basically horrified. I’m not exactly
sure if she is upset about the things I said to Ellie or the fact
that my big fancy Four Seasons wedding is a thing of the past. It’s
probably a little of both.

“Madison, no matter what trouble you and
Ellenor are having she would never do something like this. Are you
sure your friend didn’t make the mistake?” Grandmother has always
liked Sienna, so I know she isn’t just saying that to redeem Ellie.
“Things do happen and I know she recently started a new company. Or
perhaps one of her staff made the mistake.”

“It really doesn’t matter anyway. We have a
new location, and it will be a wonderful day.” I decide to just
move on from the subject because I’m emotionally drained and I’d
rather not go back and forth about Ellie anymore.

“No, you need to go there and demand that you
have your wedding as planned. I’m calling my lawyer.” She pulls out
her phone and starts scrolling.

I stop her because, frankly, I don’t care
anymore. I once said I would marry Cole in a parking lot if I had
to, and now after everything that has happened I mean it.