Page 114 of Tainted Love

‘Oh, and one more thing.’ She moves to the bed and bends to pull out a bubble-wrapped parcel.

I sit onto the edge of the bed, sticking my tongue out to demonstrate how tight my dress is when I bend. I take off the bubble wrap and turn over a photo frame so the picture is face up. And when I see it, my eyes fill with tears.

‘Oh, hell,’ Amanda says, rushing to get a tissue and handing it to me.

It’s the picture from my dad’s bedroom, blown up. My father, Sandy and me on Brighton Pier. I shake my head as I dab the corners of my eyes, desperately trying not to cry.

‘I love it, Sandy, thank you.’

‘Let’s get this show on the road before we all ruin our make-up,’ Amanda demands. ‘I hear there’s a groom waiting outside.’

Suddenly, nerves build everywhere in my body: my stomach, my chest, my weak limbs. I nod and shake or do something with my head.

I’m about to become Mrs Scarlett Ryans.

I can’t wait.

He’s thought of everything. We move outside as the thirty or so guests, all family and friends we love, stand from white linen chairs either side of a white aisle laid out on the grass. A piano begins to play the first notes of Yiruma’s ‘It’s Your Day.’ I glance to the pianist, who smiles back at me. He hired the pianist from the charity gala who made me cry. Now she does the same thing again. My eyes fill as Amanda kisses me on the cheek then sets off down the aisle.

He’s always said he wanted me to have the fairy tale.

He’s giving it to me.

‘Ready?’ Sandy asks as she hooks her arm through mine.

‘Ready.’

We walk the first section of the aisle behind one half of the guests, then turn left and I see him, standing next to Williams and Jackson, his back to me. Williams turns to me then pats Gregory on the shoulder and whispers something in his ear. Gregory stands in that pose I love. His hands by his sides in his black, perfectly tailored suit. His legs parted, his shoulders tall and strong, his hips slightly forward. His hair is slicked back.

Blood pumps so hard in my veins that every single part of me might explode.

I want to see his face. Ineedto see him.

Sandy excitedly squeezes my hand and I look around our family and friends. Luke smiles at me. Lawrence dips his head. Lara wipes her eyes with a tissue and Stuart turns his lips in a half-smile that’s so incredibly familiar. There’s one person missing but I know he’s looking in on us from his cloud and he’ll be content because his little girl is the happiest she’s ever been in her life.

Sandy takes my bouquet as I stand in front of the trellis archway and Amanda fans out my dress and veil on the floor. Then I take the final three steps alone. Towards the man I love. The man I couldn’t have dreamt. He turns now, those mesmerising brown pools taking in every single inch of me.His. All his.

When our eyes connect, his chest rises with his breath and he presses his hands to his heart.

If it’s possible, I fall just a little bit deeper.

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