She drove back to the division and went to her database. From her purse, she retrieved the card with the bridal shop owner’s name on it. Using her power as a police officer, Sienna looked up the home address of the woman.
When she was driving over to the woman’s house, she got a notification on her phone. When she parked, she looked at it. It said they needed her at the division for an interrogation. She texted back that she was off the clock. Someone else could handle it.
* * *
The next morning Sienna made her way to the church vestibule. She took a deep breath before twisting the knob. When she opened the door, Michelle, Lynne, and Scott turned toward her. When they saw her, her mother burst into tears.
Scott came forward. “Don’t mind her. She’s been doing that all morning.”
He put his arm around her, and she was so grateful to him.
Michelle stood there waiting for Sienna, and it was all Sienna could do to take those few steps toward her sister.
“Are you still talking to me?” Sienna asked.
“Of course, I’m still talking to you.”
“I’m sorry.” They both said in unison and a heavy weight lifted from Sienna’s heart.
“Let me—”
“Tell me—”
“You go first,” Sienna said.
“After that outburst in your office, I went back, but you had already left. Your captain told me what was going on. You should have told me a man’s life was at stake. I know that your job is important to you.”
Tears stung Sienna’s eyes and she said very softly, “But I have to find a balance and I haven’t. I have to confess to you that I wasn’t even aware that I was using my job to keep emotional distance from you and Lynne and Scott. I was so afraid of loving you.”
“Why?”
“It was so hard when I was shuffled from foster home to foster home that it was just easier to protect myself from getting attached. But I realized that I don’t have to protect myself anymore from love. I don’t want to lose you.”
Michelle stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Sienna, and the tears flowed. “You could never lose our love. You’re my big sister and I need you in my life. I want you to stand up with me while I pledge myself to Geoff.” Michelle looked down at Sienna’s dress. “How did you get your dress altered so quickly?”
“I used DMV and a little pleading and begging. Thank God, the owner of the bridal shop is an understanding woman.”
“And if she hadn’t been?”
“I would have hated to have to threaten to throw her in jail.”
Michelle smiles. “Would you help me dress?”
“Yes.” Sienna accepted the exquisite wedding gown from her mother. “Thanks…Mom.”
Her mother smiled with full acknowledgment in her eyes.
“If you’re going to call her mom, then I damn well better be dad,” her father said.
They all laughed. Her dad went off to see how things were going in the church. Sienna helped Michelle to pull the ivory lace dress up over her hips, smoothing the satin underskirt and bodice, and adjusting it so the slit in the straight skirt lay along her left leg ending at the knee.
Sienna pulled up the yards and yards of the shining satin train and attached it to the elegant satin bow at the small of Michelle’s back while her mother worked at closing the numerous satin-covered buttons.
When those tasks were done, Sienna placed the pearl-and-sequin-decorated Juliet cap on her sister’s head, pulling it forward until the peak settled comfortably against her forehead.
“I brought you something to wear.”
She took the bracelet her sister had given her years ago off her wrist. The blue stones shone in the light. With a smile and tears welling in her eyes, Sienna slipped the friendship bracelet onto her sister’s wrist. “Something borrowed, something blue.”