Written in the Stars Read Online Free Page A

guests on either side who are all looking at me with almost sick anticipation, like onlookers at a car crash.
    ‘It’s all right,’ I call out weakly. ‘I’m OK! Serves me right for trying to wear high heels!’ There is a ripple of laughter. ‘It’s good luck for something to go wrong on your wedding day, right?’ I add. ‘And now that I’ve gone arse over . . .’ Marion glares at me and I hurriedly change my sentence ‘. . . apex, it stands to reason that everything else is going to go perfectly! So let’s do this thing! Let’s have a wedding!’
    This receives a round of applause and as I take my bouquet from Milly and thrust it in the air, I hurriedly get into position. For some reason I feel like I have to marry Adam as soon as possible – before it’s too late.
    I take Cal and Loni’s arms and then the three of us begin to walk, with me leading us quickly – but carefully – towards Adam. I glance over my shoulder; I know I’m ready for my future now but I can’t quite shake the feeling that my past is hovering in the shadows somewhere, watching every single step I take.

Chapter 4
    Adam won’t look at me. Everything I say seems so wretchedly, pathetically clichéd. I stand in the chapel waiting for him to speak. It feels like forever before he does.
    ‘I know you’re scared, but this doesn’t make any sense.’ He turns as if with renewed belief that he can change my mind. ‘We’re meant to be together, Bea, you know we are! Hey, do you remember the night when we first met?’ he says hurriedly, running his hand through his head of thick hair and holding it there. ‘We were sitting outside the Greenwich Tavern, it was about 10 p.m., the sky had turned this amazing colour of purple and we were telling each other about our exes and how we’d never be crazy enough to fall in love again . . .’
    ‘When “Crazy” by Cee Lo Green started playing through the speakers . . .’ I finish softly. I close my eyes, taken back to that moment again. It had felt like a sign: a split second when time had tipped, changing the course of our lives. We’d looked at each other, Adam and I, and we’d known that we were crazy enough to do just that. Fall in love. I shake my head. Adam’s still talking, still reliving the happy moment for me, but I put my hand up.
    I want to tell him what I can’t seem to articulate: that I’m not worthy of him. I couldn’t live with myself if I were to go through with this, that I’m hurting him now to save him future heartbreak and disappointment when he finds out the truth about me.
    ‘I’m so sorry, Adam.’ I stifle a cry with my hand, drop my bouquet on the floor and then I stagger past him blindly into the nave where the hushed guests are still waiting. They know something is wrong; they’re staring at me like I’m some sort of alien. I pause for a moment in the centre of the aisle. Maybe I am crazy? Maybe I always have been. And with that thought I bow my head and begin to run, ripping off my veil as I push through the doors and head down the path towards the white vintage Rolls-Royce that has just magically appeared in front of the church.
    The driver looks over his shoulder inquisitively as I get in. He clearly was not expecting me so soon.
    I glance out of the window and see that Adam is standing in the arch of the church doorway. His left hand is lifted above his eyebrows, shading his eyes from the sun. He looks like a movie star in his morning suit. I imagine for a moment that I’m next to him, holding his hand, and that we are both wearing wedding rings. The image is so clear in my mind that when I close my eyes it’s like I am stepping into it. Adam and I are laughing as we kiss surrounded by a horseshoe of our friends and family. They throw rose petals over us until all I can see is a white floral mist. I open my eyes and the image of us is gone as quickly as it came.
    ‘Please, just go,’ I beg, and the driver shrugs, starts up the engine and