The groom stared at the woman in white.

The music had stopped. No one moved.

“What did she say?” he whispered.

The bride shook her head quickly. “They’re children. They’re confused. Someone must have brought them here to ruin us.”

The older girl screamed through her tears, “You told us Daddy didn’t want us anymore!”

The groom’s face broke.

He ran down the aisle.

Both girls rushed into his arms, muddying his tuxedo as they clung to him like they had been holding their breath for days.

“I’m here,” he cried. “I’m here. I didn’t know.”

The younger girl buried her face against his chest.

“She said if we came to the wedding, you would send us away.”

The groom kissed their dirty hair, shaking with rage and grief.

Then he opened the wet envelope.

Inside was a letter from his late wife.

His hands trembled as he read it.

If I am gone, protect our daughters from Elise. She has been threatening me for months. She wants my place, my house, and my children erased.

The bride backed away.

“No,” she whispered. “That’s not real.”

The groom lifted his tear-filled eyes.

“My wife wrote this before the accident.”

A guest in the front row suddenly stood.

“I saw the girls behind the east wing,” she said, crying. “I thought they were flower girls playing in the rain.”

The bride looked around, trapped by every stare in the room.

“I did it for us,” she said, her voice cracking. “You were never going to move on while they were there.”

The groom stood slowly, holding one daughter in each arm.

“They are not something I move on from,” he said. “They are my children.”

The bride’s bouquet slipped from her hands.

“Please. I love you.”

He looked at the mud on his daughters’ faces.

At their shaking hands.

At the fear in their eyes.

Then he removed his wedding ring and let it fall onto the aisle.

“The wedding is over.”

The younger girl touched his cheek with muddy fingers.

“Daddy, are we going home?”

He pulled both girls tighter against him, tears running down his face.

“Yes,” he whispered. “And no one will ever lock you away from me again.”