Unable to get a single word out or explain anything to Eleanor, Mike bolted from the bedroom. Startled by the sudden crash, his parents stepped out of their room, but their attempts to stop their son went nowhere. He ignored their worried calls and rushed outside, desperate to be alone after what he had just seen.
He was shaken to the core, caught between fear and disbelief, and his mind refused to settle on one clear thought. After leaving the property, he wandered without direction until he reached the riverbank nearby. There he dropped to the ground, buried his face in his hands, and cried. He could not make himself believe fate could play a trick this cruel, and he kept trying to tell himself there had to be some other explanation.
The moment his bride slipped out of her wedding dress, his whole world cracked open. Mike had never imagined anything like this, not even in his worst moments, but he knew there was no undoing it now. Sooner or later he would have to go home, look his father in the eye, and ask the questions he never thought he’d need to ask.
For the moment, though, he put that conversation off. He was too wrung out to face anyone. Back at the house, Susan, his mother, saw her new daughter-in-law coming down the stairs and asked, with growing concern, what on earth had happened. Just a couple of hours earlier, Eleanor’s beautiful wedding gown had drawn compliments from everyone there. Now it looked badly rumpled.
In a daze, Eleanor had pulled the dress back on so quickly she barely remembered doing it. If she hadn’t happened to catch sight of herself in the mirror, she might have walked downstairs half-dressed and died of embarrassment. At that moment, the last thing she wanted was to explain herself to her new mother-in-law or answer questions she wasn’t ready for.
Her heart was pounding with hurt and confusion over what had just happened between her and Mike. Without saying much of anything, she hurried out of the house, made it to the road, and flagged down a ride so she could get home as fast as possible. The driver took one look at her pale face and swollen eyes and gently asked if she was all right.
Her tear-streaked face answered that question well enough, but she had no intention of pouring her heart out to a stranger. She only gave a small nod and asked him, in a strained voice, to please drive faster. When she reached the apartment where she had grown up, Eleanor stumbled through the door and broke down completely.
Her mother, Linda, was frightened to see her daughter show up in the middle of the night looking disheveled, with smeared makeup and a wrinkled wedding dress. Alarmed, she rushed over and begged her to explain why she was there. She started asking question after question, fearing that her new son-in-law had done something unforgivable to hurt her daughter…
