Chapter 14 - The Wedding With No Armed Guards
Clara and Leo married at a small lakeside venue outside the city.
Forty-eight guests.
Evan was best man.
Frank complained he had been robbed.
“You’re seventy percent criminal uncle,” Evan told him.
“Disrespectful.”
The diner staff attended.
Susan attended and reminded Leo he still had expense reports due Monday.
No armed guards stood visibly anywhere.
Clara had insisted.
Leo had negotiated discreet security in the parking lot.
Marriage required compromise.
Clara wore her mother’s old necklace.
Leo wore Thomas Hayes’s cufflinks.
Clara had found them in her father’s briefcase.
Before the ceremony, she handed Leo a twenty-dollar bill.
“What is this?”
“My father’s poker debt.”
Leo stared.
“He owed me.”
“According to him, you owed him.”
“He lied.”
“He was a lawyer.”
Leo laughed.
Then grew emotional.
“I wish he were here.”
“So do I.”
At the altar, they made no promises about saving each other.
They promised truth.
Choice.
Patience.
And no secret envelopes containing fifty thousand dollars.
That line made Frank laugh loudest.
When they kissed, Clara remembered the hospital.
Needle in her arm.
Sixty-eight dollars in her purse.
A dying stranger behind swinging doors.
One decision.
May you like
One pint of blood.
An entire life changed.
