Ezra squeezes my hand.
My parents come marching forward, looking furious. Letting go of Ezra’s hand, I step forward.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
My mother raises her hand and slaps me hard across the face.
“What in the bloody hell!” Ezra roars from behind me as he pulls me back.
“I didn’t raise you to be a whore,” my mother hisses before turning and walking away. “How dare you bring a scandal like this to the family? I should have aborted you.”
“Dad?” I gasp.
Red-faced, my father raises his hand and points a shaking finger at us. “You need to leave. When you moved to the city after graduation, not giving a damn that we needed your help here, that was bad enough. But this? This.” He scoffs. “You are not the daughter I raised and until you repent from your sins, you are not welcome here.”
I look around the room and see everyone watching us as I fight back the tears.
“I-I don’t understand.” I shake my head.
Ezra squeezes me tighter.
“Maybe you should ask your other boyfriends,” he says over his shoulder as he walks away.
Someone coughs, “Whore.”
“You!” Ezra points at the police chief. “Are you just going to stand there or arrest Mrs. Blake for assaulting her daughter?”
“I didn’t see anything, son,” the chief says as he raises his drink to his mouth.
Turning in his arms, I push Ezra back toward the door. “Let’s just go.”
Ezra looks down at me and grabs my hand. “Hold on, love.”
We rush forward and leave the parish hall.
“Keys,” he demands as we approach the car.
Wordlessly I pull them out of my purse and set them in his hand. He opens my door, and I slide inside. As soon as the door shuts, the tears start to fall.
I don’t understand. What the hell just happened?
Ezra gets into the car and pulls out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to call one of the guys and have them change our tickets and find out what the bloody hell is going on.”
His phone instantly starts blowing up and he frowns.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbles as he hits call.
“Thank god.” Liam sighs.
“About fucking time!” Santi says.
“Have you heard?” Drake asks.
