Another Piece of My Heart by Jane Green Page A

she thinks. She didn’t need the big dress, or the hundreds of attendees, or the day that was all about her. Ethan had done that the first time around, and Andi didn’t want that kind of wedding. Their ceremony was small and intimate, about them, and their family, and, of course, everyone walked on eggshells around delicate Emily.
    Andi had taken Emily shopping to buy whatever dress she liked. She hoped Emily would choose something lovely, but didn’t try to dissuade her when Emily chose a floor-length stretchy black jersey dress that was less The Wedding Party and more The Addams Family.
    She had asked Emily to be her maid of honor, had bought her and Sophia each a delicate pearl necklace, with a tiny pearl-and-diamond pendant. They were expensive, and beautiful, and when Emily “lost” hers before the wedding, Andi didn’t say anything.
    Emily cried throughout the ceremony, sobbing throughout the vows, hiccuping loudly throughout the “I do’s.”
    She had run out, loudly and dramatically, crashing through the doors, immediately after Ethan put the ring on Andi’s finger, and Andi had grabbed on to Ethan’s hand to stop him from running after her, flashing him a warning look with big eyes. To his credit, he had stayed, but he kept looking toward the door. Physically, he was in the room next to her; but emotionally, he was outside, with his arms wrapped around his daughter.
    Andi’s mother was still alive then, fighting her way through chemotherapy, her magnificent hair now gone, a chic bobbed wig in its place.
    “My love,” she had said to Andi when they were milling around, the immediate family and their four closest friends. “You have your work cut out for you.”
    “Oh, Mom.” Andi turned to her, scared. “Is it going to be okay?”
    “Yes, my darling,” she said. “He is a wonderful man, and that is what is important. Emily is a teenager, so these years, these difficult years are nearly done. I’m sure things will change once you settle down into your new life. It’s one thing to create drama before you are married. That I understand—she is trying to prevent it from happening—but once you are married, then what? Then she’ll have to accept it. It will all be fine, you’ll see.” But her eyes were filled with doubt.
    Andi shakes the memories of her own wedding out of her head. It wasn’t a day of happiness and joy, as she had hoped, but of tension and upset. She had been glad when it was over, when Ethan’s parents had taken the girls to drop them off at their mother’s, when they were finally on a plane headed to Zihuatanejo.
    Had it been a premonition, she sometimes wondered, in her darkest hours. But no, she refuses to believe it. A car honks a short burst, disturbing her thoughts, and she looks up to see Topher’s car kicking up a cloud of dust as he pulls into the driveway.
    “Cake, anyone?” he hollers out the window and, with a large smile, she goes over to see what he has pulled off. He’s giving her strange looks as she approaches, but she has no idea what they mean.
    “Look who I found!” Topher’s voice sounds suspiciously—almost deliberately—cheerful, Andi realizes, slowing as she reaches the car.
    Peering through the window, trying to decipher Topher’s tone, Andi sees Drew in the passenger seat and, slumped in the rear seat, her mouth in a sulky frown, Emily.

Eight
    “Emily?” Andi says with a sinking heart, trying desperately to sound bright and cheerful. “Aren’t you supposed to be at your mom’s this weekend?”
    Emily shrugs. “I was bored so I came back to Dad’s.”
    “And we found her there all by herself, so we threw her in the car and brought her with us.” Drew steps out the car and walks around to the trunk to get the cake. “Kids were starting to come over, and we were worried.”
    “What do you mean, kids ?”
    “Just … cars pulling up. We sent everyone away and locked up the house. Don’t worry, but Emily refused to go back to her