- 3.
The wedding day arrived.
Mark pulled out all the stops, making it a
huge deal.
<
The place was packed, the atmosphere was
electric.
Mom showed up too.
She looked thin.
The lines around her eyes and the streaks of
gray in her hair made her look… old.
Her face was a blank slate.
Her eyes flicked back and forth between me
and Mark.
It had been a while since I’d seen her.
There was a darkness in her eyes I couldn’t
place.
The minister calls her up to the altar.
Mark took her hands and looked right at her.
“I’m so glad you could make it, Mrs. Lee,”
Mark said.
“I promise, I’ll always take care of Sarah. I’ll
spend the rest of my life loving her.”
The minister grinned and held the microphone
out for my mom.
“And as the mother of the bride, do you have
any words you’d like to share with the happy
couple?”
Mom looked directly at me.
“No” she said
“No,” she said.
“I just need to say one thing to my son–in-
law.”
She walked up to Mark, whispered something
in his ear.
Mark’s smile vanished.
His eyes went wide with terror.
He looked at me like he’d never seen me
before.
Then he turned and bolted for the hotel
balcony.
“Mark, stop!” I screamed.
He didn’t hear me.
He just kept running, like something was
chasing him.
He climbed onto the railing, took a deep
breath, and jumped.
Bang.
The sound of his body hitting the ground
echoed through the wedding hall.
Screams erupted from downstairs.
It all happened so fast.
One minute Mark was standing there, full of
life.
<
The next, he was a broken mess in a pool of
blood.
He was gone.
