Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

41. Bride

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," the clerk said.

Mackenzie Mars married. Everything felt surreal. I was married.

*****

Depression had left my life for a long time, but with Declan a degree of it returned. My pain was endured in silence. I tried to remain afloat of the sadness that wanted to bring me down to the deepest and darkest well. All the sorrow swimming in me was hidden behind smiles and normality. I decided not to ever mention Declan to anybody.

Robin was my guy. He was my confidant, and not only because of the Declan situation. Robin had seen me breakdown from the very beginning. He had been the arms to wrap around me when I could not handle the reality of emotions. When my brother's death brought tears to my eyes, he took me into his arms. When I had moved to New York after my parents' separation, he offered me comfort. When I had seen my father in Maryland, he let me cry. More recently, he had been the only one to know of the suffering I was going through because of the man who betrayed his wife and me.

While the world continued spinning, I kept going but with weight on my shoulders. Robin was the one to straighten my back when I was hunching over too much. But, there came a point where I was the one who helped him. I was able to repay a part of what I owed him. Although he would never see it that way, since he had never done anything for me to receive something out of it. Nonetheless, I was glad I was there for him in a time of need.

It had been more than a week since I had gone to Robin's office to cry about the incident with Declan. Only there were things that were worse. We received terrible news. It had been 9:03 when I was trying to put Faith to bed. She had fallen asleep in my arms, so I had to struggle up the stairs to take her to her room. Mom had pulled off the covers of Faith's bed, so I could lay her in it. I pulled the covers up to her chin and turned on her night light. My mom and I left her bedroom after shutting the door.

"What time are you going to take Faith to Farrah and Frederick's," I asked my mom before I went downstairs to my room.

I usually had class at 8:00 in the morning, so her and my sister stayed home after I left. "10:00," Mom answered.

"Do you think you could drop me off at school after you drop her off? My professor is going to a conference out of town, so my first class is cancelled."

She nodded her head. "I don't see why not." She smiled.

"Okay. Goodnight then." I was about to go down when Lucius came out of his bedroom. I was going to bid him goodnight, but the lack of color in his face ceased words and thoughts.

Mom saw the same thing I saw, so she asked, "Lucius, what's wrong?"

"My parents' jet never landed in New York."

"What do you mean? They were supposed to get here this evening. Where did they land if not in New York," Mom asked.

Lucius gulped and a chill ran down my spine. "The Atlantic Ocean," he said. Farrah and Frederick had traveled to Spain for their wedding anniversary, and they were to return on Wednesday evening. Instead, only their corpses were returning home. There would be no more smiles and conversations late at night when they went over to visit us. "I'm going to go over to my parents' house."

Quickly, my mom spoke up. "I'll go with you."

They both turned to look at me. "I'll stay here with Faith, don't worry." They nodded and grabbed their things to leave.

I watched them leave, then I went to my room to collect a pillow and a fuzzy blanket and went back to the second floor. I laid by Faith's bed on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Death always left friends and family with nothing but pain. The people who died were saved from having to endure any more loss, but the rest of us who remained had to push through the despair of losing them and had to continue living difficult lives.