ght even be my brother-in-law by now, if all had gone as planned-and my own beloved sister, Faith, were counting on me. I had to ignore

ther did not approve of the girl. Convinced she was only after the Adams's , fortune, he met with her secretly, persuaded her to break off with Brian and paid her a large lump sum to disappear. Coupled with the carly loss of

.But we all have sad stories to tell, I thought. and I knew that only

in the arched entrance way to th

a who you're s

with a wid

m New York, drove three hours from the airpot to this god forsaken sowhereville, got lost five times on the road and walked the last mile in the pouring rain. His voice had started off at a reaso

ow him I was not cowed by his anger. But it really was funny if you thought about it, I realized. Brian Adams was truly a man on a mission. You could see it from the obsessed gleam in

sement at my expenses, Ms. C

suggested politely. We are

w you are either going to tell Will to come out and face

rm airily. "But it won't do y

to step out from behind the couch or a curtain. Then he looked

h hand." I doubt that even my brother would stay in hidin

peered out the Window at the wretched weath

a fair damsel before. It wa

two superstitious? No letting the groom view the

,"I said honestly. "But Will is. Fun

is he? You might as well tell me now and

ly. When he stared at her in di

his lips and sighed. I wondered if he was

, raised in a backwater town just like Sweetwater, had left home pregnant and unwed at age seventeen and barely finished high school. After years of scraping by at menial jobs, I had my own home and business now, an achievement that I very was proud of.But still, while I had always found my home quite comfortable and had decorated it to my taste, could understand how it must look to a man of his reputed wealth. I

at the moment than finding a replacement. Paying the utilities bills, for instance. Besides, I was waiting for a suitable rug to pass throu