Page 49 of Too Far To Sea
Her mother gasped. “What a terrible thing to say.”
“I don’t want to fight with you. Not now. I need to get ready so I can go as soon as possible.”
“You are not to tell your sister.”
“What I say to my sister is not for you to dictate.”
“But you’ll ruin the wedding.”
“Amy-Kate and Chandler did that. Not me.”
“But the wedding—England. We’ve spent so much money. The connections.” The last words revealed her mother’s only real concern. Money.
“Then I suggest you go pound on Chandler’s door. Since he’s the one who ruined everything, he can pay for it.”
“But if she forgives him, everything will work out.”
Don’t say it. DON’T say it.Dana said it anyway. “I’m sure my father has a different opinion about a cheating spouse and things working out.”
Sheila raised her hand to slap Dana’s face.
Dana easily sidestepped. “Please leave or I will call security.”
“Fine, I’ll leave, but don’t you dare tell your sister anything.”
Dana wasn’t about to make that promise. Chey needed to know.
Sheila slammed the door on her way out. Dana sent a whispered apology into the cosmos for the passengers her mother disturbed.
Foregoing breakfast, Dana was one of the first in the queue to leave the ship. Chandler, accompanied by Officer Alvaro and another security member, was at the front of the line with two large suitcases. Apparently, he was going to take the coward’s way out and sneak off the ship before Cheyanne could return. Dana studied the group. From the stern look on the chief security officer’s face, there might be more to that story. What exactly had Chandler done?
She wasn’t close enough to hear any conversation between Chandler and his somewhat disheveled best man. Their clipped responses to each other indicated an argument. Unfortunately, she couldn’t read lips, though she was fairly certain she heard Cheyanne mentioned repeatedly. Had Chandler contacted her sister yet?
The men left the ship together. Dana waited for her turn to disembark. By the time she reached the port gates, neither man was around. Nor were they at the train station. Dana spent most of the twenty-minute ride thinking of things to say to her sister. Oh, to be three again and not understand the blow she was delivering when uncovering infidelity. Judging from her conversation with her mother and depending on who told Cheyanne about the affair, there were multiple ways this morning could go. There was the real possibility Dana would be the one to deliver the news.
Few people were on the streets as she walked to the lavish hotel. Dana found Cheyanne’s room and knocked on the door.
Erin opened it and let her in. “Don’t talk too loudly. We all have wicked hangovers.”
Cheyanne stepped out of the bathroom, her hair wrapped in a towel. “I don’t have a hangover. Every time someone offered tobuy me a drink, I thought of your worried look. I stuck to soda all night long.”
“What worried look?”
Cheyanne tipped her head. “The one you are using now. What is wrong? Is Amy-Kate’s ankle broken?”
Dana’s throat tightened. Her sister’s concern for Amy-Kate made this even harder. “You haven’t talked to her today?”
“No.” Cheyanne sat on the end of a bed.
“What about Chandler?”
“No. We aren’t meeting until noon.”
Dana bit her lip. The scenario she most feared. She sat next to Cheyanne.
“What is it? You’re scaring me.”
“Perhaps we should talk in private.”
