Even though he had not really paid attention to the vicar's speech, some of it still echoed in Callum's mind when he took part in the rest of the wedding traditions. Cheering, applauding, lots of wishing well. And photos. Tons of photos. Not only from Carter, the woman that Anna's family had hired as the official photographer, but from anybody else with a phone as well. The flashes of light and the clicks, from those who were unable or too lazy to switch that photo sound off, became annoying. And he wondered: What was it that they were celebrating here?
Somehow both him and Anna ended up in front of his parents-in-law. "Where are you two going for your honeymoon?" Mrs. Gilmour inquired while having her gaze fixed on Anna. "I don't believe I got a word of it."
Anna seemed like in a trance. Not that she had been able to answer this in the first place - Callum had made the arrangements and hadn't told her anything yet. When she referred her folks to him, he put up a reassuring smile: "It's a surprise. Don't worry, Mrs. Gilmour! "I'll take care of her."
"You better." Although the voice of his father-in-law didn't sound like it, the threat in those words could not be mistaken. Callum stood his ground when Mr. Wallace tried to stare him down. He tried to remember: Didn't Anna once tell him that her dad always carried a gun on his travels? On the other hand, did he really need one? Those muscular arms and hands under the fancy suit could easily crush any part of Callum's body.
"Dear, we talked about this," Mrs. Gilmour tried to defuse the situation, and her husband thankfully gave in.
"Yes, right."
At this moment Callum would have welcomed any opportunity or excuse to get out of this awkward conversation. So he looked around... and found one. "If you'll excuse me..." he said to the Gilmours, with an additional whisper to Anna: "I'll be right back."
Ignoring the slightly miffed looks of his in-laws, he rushed away. It wasn't just an excuse to get away from them. Mia had shown up in the furthest corner of the party, glancing daggers at him, but had turned away and started to walk as soon as he spotted her. He hurried to follow her around the corner... but she had vanished already.
"Mia?" Callum asked cautiously into the emptiness. Despite the huge crowd that now gathered in front of the hotel, nobody was actually in this gloomy part of it. Somewhere far back a door closed. Callum went on to follow, but then stopped. Mia apparently didn't want to talk to him and even ran away, so following her wouldn't do any good. If Molly was the open and goodwilled twin, then Mia was definitely the stubborn one.
He went back to the others. Anna had thrown the bouquet, and her bridesmaid Bridget had caught it. Despite the cheering of the others, she didn't seem to be very happy about this. For a short moment her glance went to the crowd of elderly people - Callum's parents and relatives, the vicar, the entertainer and the photographer - and Callum wondered what she was so worried about.
"So you did it." A hand landed heavily on Callum's shoulder, and Ocean Creed smiled warmly at him. "You actually took the vow."
"You still had doubts?" Callum inquired and raised an eyebrow.
"Not as such, no," his best man answered. "Not until I saw your face at the altar. Are you alright?" He tilted his head and looked Callum right in the eyes. "Or do you have doubts now?"
The other groomsmen had caught up with the two of them by now, so Callum had no chance to think about an answer. He was just rushed away and cheered on by his friends, and it would just be a matter of time until someone broke out the liquor again. The entire group practically dragged the groom back to the party. They arrived just in time to watch Anna open the first wedding gifts, accompanied by the giggling and chattering of her bridesmaids.
So she couldn't wait for me to do this? Callum shook his head. Maybe he should have seen it coming. Guess her manners need a little work then...
Just as he moved to approach her, Scott suddenly stopped him. "Do me a favor," his groomsman said with a sinister smile. "Open our present to you next! It's in the silver bag over there."
Callum gave him a distrustful look. "Scott, what have you done this time?"
"Just do it!" And with a push Callum was shoved towards the presents and his bride. This is all too fast here. For some reason there was a rush to all this that didn't leave time to process the details. Anna and her friends didn't seem to care, and the rest of the family was also gathered around the gift table, watching them curiously. If he still wanted to be part of this, he would have to act fast, as Anna was tearing through the presents like crazy.
She didn't notice his presence, so he just stepped behind her and laid his hands gently on her shoulders. "Starting the show without me, love?"
Apparently she didn't get what he was trying to say, as her only reaction was to ask: "What show?"
So much for that attempt... "I've got no clue," Callum answered. "Scott said to open that one." As Anna reached for the silver bag that his friend had him directed towards, he already had the feeling that he was going to regret this.
This time he was allowed to open it himself, as Anna passed the bag onto him. But with all eyes pried on him, with him having the attention of the entire room, there was no way of escaping it... and when he finally tore it open and removed the tissue paper in there covering the item in question, he knew that he had finally arrived at the first circle of hell.
Scott! You idiot!
It didn't help that Anna had a totally different reaction to it. "I love this! Someone has a great sense of humor."
Don't encourage him any further! Callum made a mental note to give his friendship with Scott a very thorough evaluation. Him and his crazy girlfriend. The rest of the party, most of them at least, were in on the joke and were laughing their butts off. But not everyone. He could feel the eyes of his mother, the glance of disapproval, like a spear in his back. This wasn't even his fault... but at some point it didn't matter.
He grabbed the fuzzy handcuffs, took them out of Anna's hand who had them swing around like a flag while laughing almost hysterically. Her reaction made it all the worse, showing him that she had a very good idea about who would eventually be wearing them. "Love, I think we're good here." He chucked them at his ungrateful bunch of miserable so-called friends who chuckled at the other end of the party. Maybe it was better to open the rest of the presents in private, in case someone else had any bright and funny ideas.
Lucky for him, the lunch buffet was declared open at this moment. Saved by the bell, he thought grimly in his mind while still smiling on the outside and escorting Anna to the top end of the lunch table where the places had been reserved for them.
It wouldn't be the only embarrassing moment for him at his own wedding. Grandma Gwen had taken a place nearby Ocean and was just chatting his ear off. She had been quietly enjoying the wedding ceremony until now, but he knew that she loved nothing more than sharing painfully inappropriate stories with others. And now she had found a new victim. Again Callum was looking for a way out.
Mia wasn't here. Neither was his mum. His dad didn't seem to notice, or at least he wasn't worried. He was occupied with digging through the enormous buffet - it was supposed to be a light lunch, but they had put out such a large variety of food that even Callum was impressed. Though the children didn't seem to fancy it. Like little devils they raced and screamed around the entire restaurant area, annoying guests and staff alike. At least some of them seemed really bothered - Susan, the maid of honor, being one of them. She abruptly stood up from the table and headed for the ladies' room.
"Excuse me, dear," Anna suddenly addressed him from his side. "I need a moment to myself."
You're not the only one, Callum thought. "Of course, love," was his spoken answer. "Kiss?" She did him the favor and lovingly kissed his lips. Then she gathered the layers of her wedding dress and left.
Ocean Creed didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest. He was totally occupied with Grandma Gwen, and Callum desperately tried to ignore the fact that she just destroyed his entire reputation, one story at a time while his best man was nearly bursting with laughter. His father, in excellent hearing range, raised an eyebrow at some of those stories. "I didn't know that you did that, son," he mumbled.
"You weren't supposed to know," Callum grumbled. "It was just this one time, and I was young."
With the last story ending and Ocean getting a grip on himself again, his best man looked through his pockets and finally shook his head. "How silly of me!" he exclaimed. "I left my notes for the speech. Will you excuse me for a moment?" Callum was more than ready to excuse him, deprive his granny from her captive audience. But he realized that Ocean was only talking to grandma. And she released him with a wave of her hand, a gracious gesture that she had seen in some old movie about a noblewoman.
The urge to leave the table, to escape all this, became overpowering. Callum finally excused himself, stood up and hurried in the direction of the restrooms, like Susan before him. On his way he noticed that Laura wasn't sitting at her place either. He hadn't even spoken to her once since the ceremony - it seemed like she was avoiding everyone else. What is she doing here? Some other people had left, too, but that wasn't unusual. This wasn't like an obligatory event here, everyone was free to come and go as they pleased.
As he returned, Mia ran into him in the corridors. She had switched her clothes and was now wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Her mood had not changed a bit since the ceremony, and she still tried to avoid him. So Callum grabbed her arm. "Hold on, sis! What's the matter?"
Her eyes were like daggers before, but now they were shooting flames at his face. She hated when he called her that - one of many things she despised about the mannerisms he picked up in America, trying to fit in with the people. "Oh, you..." she started, and her voice raised to dangerous levels. Even though they were alone for the moment, they weren't far enough away from everyone to not cause a scene.
"Calm down, Mia, and just talk to me! You've been acting up all day." He talked as calmly and soothingly as he could, trying not to make it sound like a reproach.
"Leave me alone, Callum!" Mia shouted angrily, and Callum flinched. That was loud enough to get some unwanted attention. "Please, go! Go be with your bitchy wife!"
He felt a wave of anger rising up inside of him. How dare she? But surprisingly he couldn't get himself to call her out on this. He just looked straight into her face - this young and stubborn face of his baby sister who had been a pain in the butt all so often, yet still he loved her. He knew better than to push her right now. He knew the outcome of that. Still, he couldn't let her go without the littlest resolve of that matter - if he did, then she might never speak to him again.
"Listen!" he then said. "I'm not sure what the problem is you have with Anna, but I can guess. This is a huge change for everyone. I know that this affects you as much as me or as mum and dad. I know you don't like Anna very much. I understand that. But maybe there is something you don't know, and maybe it is time that I told you something that I haven't told anyone else."
She wasn't really convinced, and she still stared at him defiantly. But at least she didn't fight his grip around her arm anymore. Her mouth was open, as if she was about to say something, but she didn't utter a single word. She waited for his answer.
"You know me, Mia," Callum told her softly. "And I am still me. I am doing this for all of us. For our entire family. For you and for Molly. Especially for Molly. I hope and pray that she will recover from this, but if she needs more help... like medical treatment or anything like that, we would have the means to give it to her. And you - you want to be successful in your job as well, don't you? Maybe become a great fashion designer? Believe me, it will be so much easier if you have someone to back you up."
Mia scoffed. "You and praying? Try this load of bollocks on those bimbos you befriended, but not on me!"
Callum sighed. "You really don't get it, do you? Those bimbos don't need to think twice about money. They don't have to worry about it. That is why... I am doing all of this." With a wide gesture he included everything around him. "They just live with that kind of money. Imagine what I can do with it if I put it to good use."
She still wasn't fully convinced. He could clearly see it. But the fire in her eyes had died down a little. "Turning into her little puppy - her little gentleman that she can show around and brag about to her friends. But you are not doing this because you're just blindly in love, are you?"
"Hardly." Callum's heart skipped a beat when this word came over his lips. He wasn't even sure what terrified him more - the fact that he said it out loud, or the fact that he didn't even hesitate. "No matter what happens, I will still be there for you, little sister. For both of you. I promise you that."
Finally - a little smile flashed in her face. It vanished quickly behind the wall of hormone-fueled fury and genuine anger about the situation, but it had been there. "I will hold you to that," she warned him. With a nod towards the wedding party, she added: "You better hurry back before she starts missing her lap dog."
There was something in her voice... some strange bitterness that went beyond simple aversion against Anna. Callum could see it in Mia's eyes. There was still something she didn't tell him. Not because she didn't want to - but because something kept her from speaking up.
Mother, what have you done to her?
"Did you at least like my dress?" she then asked.
Callum shook his head. "It was horrible."
"Good," she said with a satisfied nod. "That was the point."
And so everything was back to normal again, at least between the two of them. In their earliest childhood they had loved to hate each other, knowing in their hearts that the other one would always be there for them - only because they wouldn't allow anyone else to ram that knife in the back that they already held in their own hands. Even now they couldn't agree on who would go in first, probably because the other would still give them a kick in the rear for it. But they managed - Mia went back to her place, next to Alex who surprisingly tolerated her presence and seemed to get along with her.
Anna had not returned yet, so Callum took his seat next to an empty chair. So much for missing her lap dog, he thought grimly. Another dark thought crawled into his mind: that he had lied to Mia about not loving Anna, about just doing this for the money. Or had he lied to Ocean? And to himself? What was he really feeling? Was he feeling anything?
Maybe Ocean was right after all. Even though he was just sitting next to Grandma Gwen, laughing at her stories, taking notes. Callum had a really bad feeling about this. He wouldn't use those stories in his speech now, would he? "Grandma," he tried to minimize the damage. "You are embarrassing me."
"Oh, Callum!" his grandmother answered with a fiendish grin. "I thought you have so much self confidence that you can handle a few of those old stories to be told to your best friends." She coughed. "I mean... it's not like..." She coughed again, stronger this time. Her words disappeared in it.
Callum frowned. "Grandma? Are you alright?"
Though she couldn't speak, she nodded. But the cough got even worse. She covered her mouth with her hand still holding the fork with some exotic dish from her plate. Her breathing added a rattling sound to it, the coughs became violent. Suddenly the fork fell out of her fingers and crashed onto the plate, breaking it. As Grandma Gwen tried to get her coughs under control and tried to speak again, her face gained a bluish tone, and sweat glittered on her forehead. The voices of the other people around her got quiet, heads turned around with worried looks.
"Grandma Gwen?" Even Ocean leaned towards her, worried about her wellbeing.
Gwendolyne Edwards had always been a sturdy and strong person, even at her high age of 83 years. She refused any help from all the gentlemen surrounding her and got up on her feet to get some relief from this horrible cough she was suffering from. And it worked - standing upright she smiled at everyone, showing that she might be an old lady, but still capable of taking care of herself.
Two seconds later she gasped for air and fell head-first onto the floor, missing the stretched out arms of the people willing to help by an inch. Then she did not move any more.