White Wedding by Milly Johnson Page B

slimy as a snail trail. With a big beaming smile he talked about his sister-in-law being a beautiful bride, even though Bel knew that he must have been
crying inside to have to adhere to that rule of protocol. He relished telling how she had tamed his wild brother. Bel wasn’t fooled. She was waiting for Liam to stick a big infected needle in
her day.
    ‘So please raise your glasses to the bride and groom. Richard and Sh— Bel.’
    He turned to Bel and the superior look on his face told her that he knew too . That split-second shushing sound wasn’t a mistake. She didn’t hear the toast. Her ears
were full of her own heartbeat; it was the sound of an iron ball thundering down the barrel of a cannon, dangerous and unstoppable. Again in slow motion she watched her dad begin to stand, and she
shot to her feet first. She waved at him to take his seat again.
    It’s still not too late, Bel. Say ‘thank you for coming’ and sit down .
    ‘Bel, what are you doing?’ This from Richard, tugging at her hand. She ignored him.
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen. Just before you hear any more, I’d like to say thank you all for coming.’
    There’s still time, Bel. Sit down and this will all be over. No one need ever know .
    But a stronger, harder, nastier voice inside answered.
    Fuck off, sensible thought. This day has been too long in coming. You sit down .
    ‘And thank you to Liam for a wonderful speech.’ She flashed a smile of such sweetness at Liam she hoped it would give him instant diabetes. ‘You truly are a master of the
spoken turd, sorry, I mean “word”.’
    A titter of unsure laughter rippled around the room in the pause that Bel then left.
    ‘I just want to tell you all how much I love Richard,’ said Bel. The room was filled with ‘aws’. ‘And even though we aren’t strictly related, how much I
adored my cousin Shaden, my lovely bridesmaid.’
    She raised her glass in Shaden’s direction and then drank from it.
    Violet didn’t like this at all. Vibes were missiling from Bel and none of them were good ones.
    ‘I say “adore- d ” because it’s past tense. I adore- d her until I found out that she was shagging my fiancé.’
    Oh God .
    Bel didn’t hear the gasps. She didn’t even notice Richard stand in front of her and try to reason with her, persuade her to leave the table and come outside to calm down – or
sober up. But Bel was stone-cold sober and he couldn’t have budged her with Semtex. She was anchored to the spot with the three tons of hurt that had been stored inside her for two months,
fermenting until they were rotten and stinking and toxic.
    ‘And according to the texts and emails I found, shagging, amongst other places, in the back of one of my dad’s vans, which she borrowed from him apparently to move some furniture. So
here for your amusement is one of those many emails that passed between them.’
    As she fumbled to pull out a folded sheet of paper from up her sleeve, Richard again tried to pull her to her seat but she pushed him off. Bel’s voice was strong as she began to read, but
the hands holding the sheet of paper were shaking. Some of her fingers had long false French-manicured nails on them; she had bitten the others off in the last half-hour, ripping them from the nail
bed. They thrummed but she was glad of the pain because it was another factor which helped to drive her on.
    ‘“Dear Big Dicky”.’ No one even tittered. ‘“It’s done, thank God, so you don’t have to worry any more – and neither do I. The B-word will
never know. Had a few cramps and unpleasantness, but it was a small price to pay. Silly us, getting that carried away. Good job I did an early test and we didn’t leave it any later.
Can’t wait to see you tonight. I’m going to eat you for supper – and breakfast.”’ Long-stored-up fat salt-filled tears started to plop down Bel’s cheeks on to
the snow-white tablecloth.
    ‘Oh God,’ said Violet. ‘Max, should we go to