CHAPTER 2 — Room 237
Within fifteen minutes, Room 237 was no longer a hotel suite.
It had become a courtroom.
Maverick's parents arrived first.
His mother, Eleanor Bennett, stepped through the doorway smiling.
"We came as soon as—"
She stopped.
Her eyes landed on the wedding gown.
Then the bed.
Then her son standing barefoot beside Penelope.
The smile disappeared.
"What..."
She couldn't finish the sentence.
Maverick's father entered behind her.
Then his younger sister.
His godfather.
My parents.
The hotel manager.
Even two security officers who had been called after guests reported a disturbance.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody had to.
The room explained itself.
Penelope clutched the bedsheet tighter.
"Mrs. Bennett..."
"I swear, it isn't—"
"Stop."
Eleanor raised one trembling hand.
"For once in your life..."
"...don't lie."
Maverick reached toward me.
"Amy, I made a mistake."
I looked at him calmly.
"A mistake is forgetting an anniversary."
"A mistake is taking the wrong highway."
"You disappeared from your own wedding."
"You slept with my best friend."
"Those were choices."
The silence became unbearable.
Then Aunt Rose quietly walked into the room.
She bent down and picked up something lying beneath the bed.
A leather envelope.
"What's this?"
Maverick's face changed instantly.
"No!"
He lunged toward her.
Too late.
Aunt Rose opened the envelope.
Inside were airline tickets.
Two passports.
Reservations for a luxury resort in Greece.
Departure time:
7:45 p.m.
The same evening as our wedding.
My father slowly took the papers from her hands.
"You weren't planning an affair."
"You were planning a new life."
Penelope finally began crying.
"We were going to tell you."
I looked at her.
"When?"
"After the honeymoon you planned to take with my fiancé?"
May you like
Neither of them answered.
Because there was no answer that sounded human.
