Page 87 of Fathers of the Bride

I’m sure I was glowing. I turned around and saw that Andy was still gone, missing the moment. Everyone was fawning over Kelly. Pudge arranging the skirts. Raj taking photos even though he’d been specifically asked not to. He saw me glaring, and said, “They’re personal, all right? I promise, I won’t post them anywhere.”

“Oh, well in that case send them to me,” I said.

“Yes, you’re going to be a beautiful, beautiful bride,” Lissa said.

“Just lovely,” Pudge added.

And then Andy was back with a tall, well-dressed, young woman. She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place her. It began to click for me as soon as Kelly asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Kelly,” Andy said. “This is your friend, Kayla.”

“She’s not my friend.”

“Yes, she is. She’s agreed to be maid of honor.”

“I’m maid of honor,” Martha squealed.

“Yes, but you’re terrible,” Andy said.

“Papa, get her out of here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I do,” I said, as it all came into focus. “This isEvilKayla.”

Andy’s face blanched. I could tell he was beginning to remember the incident. It was then that Evil Kayla took something out of her purse, it looked like a red plastic ketchup bottle, the kind you might get at a diner. But it wasn’t filled with ketchup. As soon as she squeezed the bottle a stream of black ink flew through the air and landed all over the gorgeous wedding dress, ruining it instantly.

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Andrew Lane

Well...Thankfully, we hadn’t paid for the dress.

To say I was shocked by Kelly’s reaction to Kayla—and Kayla’s actions—would be a stupendous understatement.

“I haven’t forgotten you,” Kayla yelled. “You ruined my life. You got me kicked out of Harvard-Westlake. I had to go to a charter school. You know the kind of opportunities you get graduating from a charter school? None thatIwanted.”

Oh my God, it was coming back to me. ThiswasEvil Kayla. There was another girl involved in the scandal who was also named Kayla. We called her Nice Kayla. What had happened to her? And why hadn’t I found her number on Kelly’s old laptop?

“You’re the one who cheated, Kayla,” Kelly said. “You ruined your own life.”

“Everyone cheated. It’s the whole point of private school. You get to cheat.”

Kelly said, “That’s not true and you know it.”

“You were the anonymous tip.”

“I wasn’t. But you know what? I wish I was. You deserved everything you got.”

“You mean everything I didn’t get.”

Now I remembered. It was a horrible mess. Two Kaylas and a Kelly—all those K names. It was hard to figure out who’d done what exactly. If I have it right, Evil Kayla stole the answers to an algebra test, sold them, and then when someone anonymously exposed her, blamed it on the other Kayla. When nice Kayla came up with an alibi, Evil Kayla and many other students (probably the ones struggling with math) turned their ire on Kelly, making the rest of her time at Harvard-Westlake challenging, to say the least.

Pudge walked over and snatched the bottle of ink away from Evil Kayla, then squirted the remainder at her. Evil Kayla took a step back and slipped on the wet, inky floor, landing unceremoniously on her ass.

Timpani was yelling for security—and that surprised me. I mean, it’s a bridal shop. They had security? On the other hand, the fact that my husband and my daughter were both looking at me like I was simply the worst person on the planet did not surprise me.

Raj was standing behind them holding up his phone and smirking. Attempting to redeem the situation just a little, I said to him, “Don’t you dare put this on the Internet.”