Whispers of Murder by Cheryl Bradshaw Page B

father’s voice emanated from the hallway.  “If you wouldn’t have pressured her to marry you before she was ready, none of this would have happened,” he lectured. 
    “We love each other.  I didn’t see a reason to wait,” Leo said.  “Besides, she’s fine.”
    “She’s in the hospital.  How’s that fine?” her sister said. 
    Isabelle kneaded her forehead with her hand and tried to will away the constant succession of pain that shot through it like bullets being fired off at a shooting range. 
    “You should lay back down and rest,” a voice said. 
    She turned and glanced toward the window.  “Emmett?” 
    Isabelle slid over in bed and he sat down.  “Why am I in the hospital?” she said.  “What happened?”
    “Your dad insisted.  He wanted to make sure you were okay,” Emmett said.  “You fainted.  Do you remember that?”
    “The last thing that comes to mind is you walking in with my father.” 
    He smiled down at her but didn’t say a word.
    “Did he come because of you…to the wedding?” she said. 
    “He loves you, Izzy.  No matter how he feels, he wanted to be there—for you, anyway.”
    Emmett was the only one who had ever called her by that name. 
    “I know you had something to do with it.”  She applied light pressure to his hand.  “Thank you.”
    Isabelle’s gaze shifted to an enormous arrangement of lilies on the table next to her.  “Are those from Leo?” she said.  “He’s so sweet.”
    Emmett shook his head.  “They’re umm…from me.  I saw them in the gift shop downstairs, and I remembered how you used to keep lilies in your room when we were—”
    “Can you tell Leo I’m awake now?  I’d really like to see him.”
    He released her hand, gazed out the window and then walked toward the door.
    “Emmett?”
    He stopped and turned around and she noticed the deep-set circles around his eyes.  He looked like a POW who hadn’t slept for days.
    She pointed to the flowers.  “Thank you for these.  They’re beautiful.”
    He tilted his head and closed the door behind him.  A moment later it opened again, but it wasn’t Leo who walked through the door.
    Isabelle looked up.  “I don’t want to see you.” 
    Melanie hopped onto the end of the hospital bed and crisscrossed her legs like she was ready to engage in a moment of meditation.  
    “Why?  You’re married to the guy now so you got what you wanted.”
    “But I thought the ceremony never finished?”
    “He got to the I-now-pronounce-you-man-and-wife part right around the time your body plummeted to the floor.  Leo practically threw himself on top of you to seal the deal with a kiss, and that quack of a pastor allowed it even though you were laying there like Sleeping Beauty.”
    Isabelle’s eyes veered away from her sister and over to the stark white wall next to her like she was trying to decide what color paint would suit it best.  “You probably hated that.”
    “The fact that you could have died on me?  No.  The ceremony making it to the “I do” part with that guy?  Yes.”
    “He has a name, you know.  You don’t need to refer to him as that guy.”
    Melanie shrugged.  “I could think of worse things to call him.”
    “Is it always going to be like this?”
    Isabelle’s sister leaned forward and smoothed her hands over both sides of her sister’s cheeks.  “You show up in town with this guy after we haven’t seen you in ages, make a brief introduction and then flash a ring in our faces and announce the two of you are getting hitched in a few weeks.  And you can’t see why that might be a little hard to take?”
    Isabelle interlaced her fingers on her lap, leaned back on the pillow behind her and sighed.  “Is Dad still mad at me?”
    “He’s disappointed.  You know how old-fashioned he is.  Leo never even asked him if he could marry his daughter.  What do you expect?”
    “Just because you all don’t know him like I do yet doesn’t mean you