***
The morning of my wedding moved too fast and too slow all at once. I was adjusting my veil in the bridal suite when I noticed Callum’s wheelchair was missing from the hallway where he’d parked it.
A bridesmaid mentioned he’d been pulled aside by my parents into one of the venue’s private rooms.
Something cold slid down my spine.
I lifted my dress and walked quickly down the corridor. The door wasn’t fully closed. I could hear my mother’s voice, low and sharp.
“Ten thousand dollars, Callum. Cash. You walk away today and Rachel never has to know we spoke.”
I froze just outside the doorway.
“Be a man about this. Let her go.”
“You think she’ll be happy pushing a wheelchair the rest of her life?” my dad went on. “Be a man about this. Let her go.”
Then I heard Callum, calm as still water.
“I would refuse you if you offered me a hundred times that. I’m not for sale. And neither is your daughter’s happiness.”
“Don’t lecture us,” my father muttered.
“I’m not lecturing,” Callum said softly. “I’m marrying her.”
I pushed the door open. Three faces turned toward me at once.
“How could you?” I whispered, stepping inside.
“We’re trying to spare you a lifetime of being a caregiver instead of a wife.”
My mother straightened her jacket as if nothing had happened.
“Rachel, sweetheart, we were only trying to give you one last chance to think clearly.”
“You tried to buy him off,” I snapped. “On my wedding day.”
“We’re trying to spare you a lifetime of being a caregiver instead of a wife,” Mom argued. “What do you think our friends are saying right now? You’re throwing your future away on a man who can’t even…”
“Don’t,” I cut in. “Don’t finish that sentence.”
I looked at my father. He was staring at the carpet, his eyes refusing to meet Callum’s. He looked less like a furious patriarch and more like a man who had swallowed a stone.
My parents sat in the front row like they were attending a funeral.
“Dad,” I said. “Say something.”
He cleared his throat. “Your mother’s right. That’s all.”
But the way he said it sounded thin, almost rehearsed. He still wouldn’t look at my husband-to-be.
Callum reached for my hand and squeezed once.
“We have a ceremony in 20 minutes. I’d like to marry your daughter now, if she’ll still have me.”
“I’ll still have you,” I said. “Always.”
