Treasured (Book Two)

Chapter 3: Dad

I cringed at Dad as he walks towards me. "Hello honey," he said. "Hey," I responded. "Where's Ms. Self Absorbant?" Dad chuckled nervously at my response. "You mean Stacy, right?" he asked. I shrugged.

Dad's eyes widened as he saw my mom. "Hey Willow," he greeted. My mom suppressed the urge to frown. "Hi Lewis," she replied coldly.

"You two look amazing," Dad said. "Thank you," Mom simply answered. I nodded in agreement. Dad squinted at Luke then back at me. "Is this your friend?" he asked. "This is Luke," I answered. "My friend."

Luke nervously shook my dad's hand. "Please to meet you sir," Luke said. "Pleasure is all mine," Dad said politely. "What time does the ceremony start?" I asked.

"Around eleven or so," Dad said. "Great," I moaned. Suddenly, Luke leaned to my ear. "At least we get to hate the wedding together," he replied. I grinned at this.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Mom asked Dad. He nodded and led her to the buffet table. While they were gone, five men arrived to the wedding.

They were all dressed in black suits and sunglasses. To me, they looked like they were in the FBI or the CIA for a very long time. I realized those men must be Stacy's siblings.

Soon, fifty more people filled up the seats and buffet table. Much to my surprise, a few of my classmates attended to the wedding. I saw Madison talking to a boy, who reminded me of Douglas Booth.

It wasn't surprising that her outfit was covered in glittery pink. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kimberly marveling at the stage and flowers. She wore a yellow dress that draped around her ankles, has red hair, and green eyes.

She looked excited until she saw her ex-friend face. Madison gazed into her eyes and gave her a mean look. Kimberly fiddled with the seams of her yellow dress. Without a word, Madison walked away from her.

I sighed at this. I was hoping that Madison will forgive her after all the torture that has happened. After my classmates all got out of the hospital, Madison refused to speak to Kimberly, everyone was frightened about their new art teacher was a killer, and most importantly, the Newton High's two best football players, Marcus and Jeff, were arrested.

However, things had gotten better after the incident. Ms. Pepper had gotten her job back, the bus driver had successfully recovered from the poison, and people were starting to notice us.

We were invited to sit with them at lunch, picked first in dodgeball, and received their phone numbers. It was great and everything until my classmates ignored us, kicked us out of their lunch tables, and changed their phone numbers.

Even though our popularity was short lived, we didn't care less about what they thought about us, we only cared about getting good grades and go to college.

As more people came, we spent most of our time, reading people's lips and try to guess what they were saying. Luke pointed at a young woman with a sun hat, violet dress, and tons of makeup.

She was talking to the man, who I think was her husband. "What do you think they are saying?" he asked. I thought about it for a moment. "The husband is probably saying that the makeup and the violet dress is not her friend." I began.

"And her hat looks like a tumbleweed?" "Close," Luke giggled. "The wife is complaining about the seating arrangements while the husband was anxious to go home and watch the football game."

I pointed at Madison talking to a boy. Luke bursted out laughing as I imitated her smug look. "This nail polish color looks terrible on me," I mimicked Madison. "Indeed," Luke said in a deep voice.

Madison winked at the boy as she ate a shrimp puff out of the bowl full of red sauce. Apparently, her face and skin turned puffy. Madison screamed and rushed out of the wedding.

We kept doing it until it was almost time to start the wedding ceremony. I stood with the rest of the bridesmaids while Luke stood with Dad's buddies.

As I stood besides the other women, I cranned my neck for Kim Kardashian to appear. Everyone sat in their seats, anxious to see her. Dad was also nervous too. He stood in a very uncomfortable position.

I could already tell this was killing him. I held a bouquet of white flowers close to my chest. The violinists saw something outside the gate and played "Here Comes the Bride".

Everyone rose up from their seats as if they were on cue. The wavy brunette woman with an elegant white wedding veil and gown strolled down the aisle. Her white heels were clipping on the cobblestone road.

Some of the audience smiled at the bride while others took pictures of the event. I only glanced at the time. It was eleven o'clock. Just a couple more hours until dinner.

As soon as Stacy walked up the steps, she joined hands with Dad. I beamed at this. Finally, the wedding ceremony can begin. Suddenly, a young woman, not much older than me, was running on the cobblestone road.

She wore a light blue dress and blue flats. Like the other bridesmaids, her brown hair was curled. She had olive skin and brown eyes.

"You need to come see this!" she screamed. "Nina!" Stacy whispered. "Maybe later, okay?" Luke and I saw something on her hands. It was blood. We ran towards Nina, not caring that everyone is staring at us.

"Where did you get this?" I asked calmly. Dad looked away from Stacy and raised his eyebrows. "Cole," Dad said. "What's going on?" "Just continue the wedding without us," Luke said politely.

"Can you show it to us?" I asked. Nina nodded and led us away out of the garden and into the gazebo. There laid a dead woman, lying on the floor.

She had straight black hair, wore a periwinkle dress, and blue wedges. The woman was surrounded in a pool of blood.

"I'll call the police," I whispered to Luke. I fished the phone out of my pocket and punched in the number. While I dialed the number, Luke took a closer look on the dead woman.

"Hello," I said. "There is a dead body..." As I droned on, Luke circled around the body as if he was a hungry Vulture. His eyes squinted at something and reached in his pocket for a phone.

After I was finished explaining everything to the police, I hung up the phone. I patted Nina on the back and told her to get everyone to come here. The little girl took a step back and ran out of the gazebo.

"Cole," Luke said. "Check this out." I nodded and leaned forward. "This wound looks fresh," he stated. "Probably someone killed her before the wedding happened." I stared at the wound in the woman's abdomen. "I think someone might have stabbed her." I explained. When Luke looked at me, I pointed the wound with my finger.

"Okay," Luke said. "But where is the knife?"