3: 3
"Bill, what are you doing? You—you're not going through with the engagement?" Anne's voice came from behind me, shaking, thick with tears.
But I'd already made up my mind.
"You're the one who doesn't want the engagement." I turned and took my parents' hands. "Dad, Mom, I had the hotel hold a room next door. Today we'll just take the relatives out for a meal."
My mom nodded and shot Sophie a hard look. "Fine by me. In-laws who put us through this? Better off without them."
"My son has bent over backwards for the two of you for eight years. Eight years, isn't that enough? And now you want our whole family to kneel down and bow our heads? I'm telling you, not a chance!"
My dad clapped a hand on my shoulder. He said nothing, but there was approval in his eyes.
He'd never said a word about my marriage, but I knew he'd been on my mom's side all along.
But the second we turned to go, Sophie threw herself at me.
"Bill! What is this supposed to mean?!" She grabbed my arm, her grip shockingly strong, nails digging into my flesh. "You dated my Annie for eight years, and now you just call it off, just like that?"
She yanked me hard enough that I stumbled, a sharp sting shooting up my right arm. Three raw scratches already ran across it.
I tried to wrench free, but she held on tight. All I could do was lower my voice. "Sophie, let go."
"I won't!" She didn't loosen her grip. If anything, she clamped down harder. "If you dare walk out that door today, I'll take Annie to hang myself outside your workplace! I'll let the whole world know that Bill Whitney is an animal who used a woman and threw her away! I'll let your boss see exactly what kind of man you are!"
Then she dropped onto the floor, staring up at the portrait of Anne's father, slapping her thigh and wailing like her heart was being torn out. "Oh, Joshua! Open your eyes and look! Your daughter's been trampled on! This heartless piece of trash slept with your girl for eight years, and now he won't even bow his head to you, now he won't even go through with the marriage!"
"People like this will get what's coming to them! You have to stand up for your daughter!"
Ten-thirty came, and the hotel officially opened for the day and cranked up the air conditioning. The drapes billowed, the paper flowers on the funeral wreaths rustled and clattered, and layered over Sophie's howling and Anne's quiet sobbing, the whole thing made your skin crawl.
My mom hunched her shoulders, shook off my dad's hand, and charged forward to slap Sophie across the face. "Have you lost your mind? If you weren't pulling this circus, why on earth would we call off the engagement?"
"Pulling this garbage on a day like this, aren't you afraid of the bad luck it brings!"
The slap left Sophie stunned. It took her a long moment to snap out of it, and then she came clawing back at us. I quickly pushed my mom behind me.
Sophie's nails raked my arm again, leaving a few more cuts that burned like fire.
