Chapter 1
I was seconds from saying “I do” at my Nashville wedding when two small children walked down the aisle carrying a letter for my groom—and his face went dead white.
The church had gone completely silent.
The little girl looked about seven.
The boy beside her couldn’t have been older than five.
My fiancé, James, suddenly stopped holding my hand.
The girl looked directly at him.
“Are you James Miller?”
James swallowed.
“Who brought you here?”
She held out an envelope.
“Our mommy said you needed to read this before you got married.”
A nervous whisper moved through the pews.
I looked at James.
“You know these children?”
“No.”
He answered too quickly.
The little boy frowned.
“Yes, you do.”
James’s mother stood abruptly.
“Someone needs to remove these children.”
The girl backed away from her.
“No! Mommy said not to trust his mother.”
My stomach tightened.
I took the envelope before James could grab it.
“Claire, don’t open that here.”
“Why not?”
“It’s obviously some kind of stunt.”
The girl shook her head.
“Our mommy is in the hospital.”
I opened the letter.
The first sentence made my hands tremble.
James reached for it.
I stepped away.
“You told me you’d never been married.”
His parents exchanged a look.
James lowered his voice.
“I can explain.”
The letter said James had disappeared six years earlier after telling another woman he was leaving Nashville for work.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
There were two birth certificates attached.
Both listed James as the father.
I looked at the children.
Then back at the man I had almost married.
“Are they yours?”
James said nothing.
The little girl suddenly pointed toward his mother.
“She knows us.”
Every head in the church turned.
James’s mother went pale.
“That child is confused.”
But the girl reached into her backpack and pulled out an old photograph.
It showed James holding both children beside their mother.
Standing next to him was the woman who had spent the past year helping me plan my wedding.
May you like
My future mother-in-law.
Then the boy looked at me and whispered, “There’s another letter Mommy said only you can read.”
