Part 2The Reception

The second he touched her, she screamed bloody murder.

The entire ceremony was grinding to a halt. My parents looked mortified.

"Mark," my dad said, his voice low and dangerous. "You need to explain what is going on, right now. Or this wedding is over."

"Dad, Mom, Chloe... it's not what you think. She's not my kid. I can't explain it right here. Can we just go home? Please?" Mark was practically vibrating with panic.

"Dude, what are you trying to pull?" my brother snapped. "You think my sister is just going to be a stepmom to your secret kid? No way in hell."

My stomach dropped. I swayed, and Jess had to grab me. Mark reached for me, but Penny was still screaming and clinging to him. He was trapped, and he clearly wasn't going to tell the truth.

Penny looked at me, then grinned at Mark. "Daddy, Mommy's here too! She went to get me a lollipop. We can all go home together now, okay?"

Her words were like needles.

I stared at Mark, turned, and started to walk.

"Chloe, wait! Listen to me! It's not..."

I was a runaway bride. I didn't care how sincere he sounded. It was all noise.

"Mommy! What took you so long? I almost let the bad woman steal Daddy!"

Penny let go of Mark and ran like a shot toward a woman in the back pew.

The woman was... sixty, at least. Dressed in a flowery, ruffled dress that was way too young for her. She looked more like the kid's grandma than her mom.

My brain just... stalled. My CPU was fried.

A second ago, I wanted to run. Now, I just wanted to grab some popcorn.

"Mom? What are you doing here?"

Mom? Mark was calling her Mom?

Everyone in the church had the same look of utter confusion. Mark had told me—swore to me—that his parents were dead.

I looked closely at the woman. The set of her eyes... they were the same as his.

He had lied to me. For four years, he’d lied.

"You still have the nerve to call me Mom?" the old woman said, turning her back on him in a pout. "Getting married, such a big deal, and you don't even tell me? Do me and Penny even matter to you?"

This was the gossip of the year.