In hearing those words—I don’t know—something in Lara shifted. The whole place began to sour. She tried to breathe, but the corset in the damned dress stopped her lungs from expanding. She grabbed at the bodice, but it wouldn’t move. Lara concentrated and began to enchant the zipper, feeling her ribs relax as the fabric released. Looking up, she spied Caren Jackson, her maid of honor, standing in the doorway in her lavender taffeta dress, her mouth agape as she watched her friend’s wedding gown appear to unzip itself with invisible hands.

Lara’s knees buckled and she stumbled into the Baby Jesus doll in his cradle shoved against the wall. Caren pulled her back up, placing her in the regular-size teacher’s chair. Lara began to pluck the baby’s breath sprigs from Caren’s updo, first just the strand that was too close to Caren’s dark-brown eyes, but then another cluster near her ear.

“Fuck the baby’s breath,” said Caren, who began tugging at the other sprigs, pulling them out.

Somehow, this absurd gesture made Lara laugh. This situation was ridiculous, really it was. She needed to get herself together. She put her head down almost between her knees to avoid fainting. “What should I do?”

Caren had been her best friend since their morning kindergarten class. They’d sat together in the tiny chairs in this room as children. Caren crouched down and met her eyes. “I honestly don’t know, but we’ll figure this out.”

“How could he—?”

Caren simply shook her head.

A few minutes later, Fred crept upstairs and whispered to her mother, just loud enough for her to hear. “I don’t think he’s coming.”

“We need to get her out of here.” Audrey grabbed her hand. “Now.”

Lara and her mother managed the stairs down to the foyer one step at a time, her father two steps behind them. For the first time in her life, Lara used the handrail. The church door opened. Her heart leapt, hoping it was Todd. Instead, Chet Ludlow, Todd’s best man, muscled through the doors, his face red. The first thing Lara thought was that he’d gotten a terrible haircut for this ceremony and that the pictures would look terrible. And then she remembered, and her stomach lurched. The wedding pictures. There would be many more moments like this in her future, cruel reminders of what didn’t happen today. Her world was about to change to “before” and “after.”

He seemed surprised to find a clump of people standing in the foyer. He turned to Lara. “I’ve been out looking for him for the last half hour. I swear I have.”

“And?” It was Caren, her voice firm.

Chet furiously shook his head. “I can’t find him anywhere.”