He looked at his watch. Only fifteen minutes had passed since the last time he'd checked, but the time schedule on the TV told him it was only an hour before the ceremony would start. The same screen showed a picture of Emily and Jason together, but it was obviously staged and a picture made for a professional photo shoot—a shoot very different from the ones he and Talia sometimes held for her Instagram.

Meanwhile, Emily was nowhere to be seen; Jason had disappeared too, getting ready for the big moment. Guests had stopped arriving and were instead making themselves comfortable in the lounge area or had gone to a room of their own located somewhere else in the castle.

The staff was busy preparing for the toast that would happen after the ceremony, but River couldn't bring himself to think of that moment just yet. He was thinking of Emily and of Jason; of the girl from the press and the things she'd told him.

It's the wedding of Jason King and Emily Abbington.

The girl hadn't said 'duh' after that, but she might as well have.

He took his phone out of his pocket and typed in his password to open up Google. If this was supposed to be common knowledge, Google must have the answers the girl had refused to give him. River didn't worry about his job anymore—partly because he'd forgotten about it and partly because he needed to have the answers his phone could give.

After loading—something that took too long for River's liking—the page showed a couple results, starting with the most recent headlines. What we dreamed of is finally happening—the wedding of King and Abbington.

It disgusted him that Emily had become a headline with just her last name, but he scrolled through the other articles. They all had pictures that were either from the same photo shoot celebrating the engagement or an unexpected shot by paparazzi. One article was titled, Everything you need to know about the King and Abbington wedding, and there was a photo attached of the castle he was currently standing in.

This was surreal.

It felt fake, as if he was imagining it. Could it be he was still dreaming and he'd never woken up at all? He'd already felt this way when he saw Emily after losing contact for months, which only seemed to confirm he was dreaming and was making it all up, fantasizing about the possibilities that could never become true.

When would he realize it was over? He was a waiter at her ritzy wedding; he should know by now there was no possibility of them ever getting together or having what they had in February, and if reason didn't get through to him, this proof should. He and Emily didn't have a chance anymore; this wedding confirmed that and the professional-looking pictures of Emily and Jason said the same thing, if the big sign at the entrance of the castle hadn't already convinced him.

But his optimistic nature refused to believe such a thing.

He was intrigued by the last title and even more the photo attached to it since it was so familiar to him, so he clicked on it. A page opened up from the The Guardian's department in San Francisco with the tag Liveblog and the subtitle This article will be updated throughout the entire day to share the most recent news in the wedding of Jason King and Emily Abbington.

He read on, even though the constant mention of the names Jason King and Emily Abbington annoyed him. The names didn't even go well together.

     The schedule of the wedding of Jason King and Emily Abbington is published and is shown below. In one hour, the much discussed ceremony will begin and we're here to report everything about it.

Not much was written underneath it, so River scrolled through the photos attached while not finding anything he hadn't already seen before, and went back to his Google Search.

Then, a terrifying thought came to mind: would Emily take Jason's last name? It was usual when marrying someone to take their name, but he couldn't imagine her taking the name of someone else. Would she be Mrs. Jason King?

Emily King.

No, no, no—it was all wrong. It wasn't happening.

But again, he was proven wrong when he picked another article to read and saw a picture of the welcoming hall of the castle on his phone, showing a smiling Jason and Emily. He was even more shocked to see himself standing in the background with Brian behind the bar.

This has gone too far.

Well, at least he'd been in the news once in his life.

     San Francisco hasn't been this excited about a wedding in a long time. After the disappearance of Emily and Jason in 2015, no one has been able to forget the two, and when they returned just five months ago, we could only hope something like this would happen. Now we're here in sunny Miami, witnessing that miracles in the world still exist.

Wait—disappearance? What did he miss?

He scrolled through, but couldn't find anything more about it than the quick mention in the first paragraph. A bigger story was here, he realized, and he had a great desire to find out why everyone was so obsessed with Jason and Emily. What disappearance was the article talking about?

He looked around and saw the same girl from the San Francisco Chronicle typing furiously on her phone, as if she was updating the article while he was watching her. He was tempted to ask her all his questions—she should know the answers, after all—but decided not to because he felt threatened. She probably didn't mean to, but tt was as if she tried to tear him and Emily apart with every word she wrote. Reading all of this was just more confirmation that it could never work out between him and Emily; their lives were too different.

He tried another search, this time with Emily Abbington. The most trending results were the same news articles from digital newspapers, but when he scrolled further down, he found older results, dating back from 2015.

Wasn't this stalking? The thought suddenly popped up in his head, and it scared him. Was what he was doing wrong? It seemed innocent, just looking up info on the internet that was available to everyone, but digging into Emily's past felt wrong. Shouldn't she tell him about these things herself?

But it was already too late: the headline CEO Abbington Aviation's daughter kidnapped caught his eyes, and although he rolled his eyes when seeing that Emily was again nothing more than a 'daughter of', the truth was more frightening than being hunted by paparazzi.

She was kidnapped?

He suddenly understood why Emily had said they only knew each other a day; it actually was just a day, and he didn't know anything about her life. Not only was she one of the 'privileged'—he hated that word so much, but didn't know how else to describe Emily's lifestyle—but there was a backstory to her much bigger than he could've ever expected.

Out of respect for Emily and her choice not to say anything to him, he didn't click the link that could've brought him to the news article, but it wasn't enough to take away his curiosity—or his doubts: getting to know more about Emily made him realize he maybe wasn't the one for her.

Jason knew all about her past. If he had to believe the San Francisco Chronicle article, they were taken together. River could never compete with that—if there even was something to compete for. After all, River had already lost; he was attending their wedding, and upstairs Emily was getting into her wedding dress and Jason was putting on his wedding suit. In an hour—or 52 minutes, to be exact—the ceremony would begin and they would be bound together for life.

But, he realized, he couldn't do nothing. He couldn't just watch it happen before his eyes and not say anything. The least he could do was go to Emily and talk to her one more time before the big moment, to say that it was okay and that he didn't want to get between her and Jason.

*

River had walked up the stairs in the tower in the far east corner of the castle where, according to the rumors, Emily must be holding up. He needed to talk to her one more time, even if she didn't want to, and time was of the essence. The clock on the wall told him he only had 45 minutes—and it would be the last 45 minutes of Emily's single life.

What did she think about this all? Did she want this—did she want to marry Jason?

Although he'd rather not think about it, River was afraid the answer would be yes, and that if Emily was given the choice, she would walk down the aisle to Jason. She had been right: they'd only known each other a day and it was in no way comparable to what she and Jason had.

He shook his head, telling himself to be a little more positive about this day—it was a wedding, after all; he was supposed to be happy for her—and with a newfound hope he knocked on her door.

"Emily?" he asked. He balanced himself from his toes to his heel as he waited for her to open. He couldn't hear anything happening inside, but eventually did get an answer.

The answer, however, came from an unexpected direction. "Who are you?" The source was a male voice behind him and the owner of the voice seemed to be uncomfortably close to him. How couldn't he have noticed he wasn't alone?

River turned around to see two people walking out of the elevator—the elevator he hadn't seen before, but if he had, he probably would've taken it instead of walking up three stairs and saving himself from the tiredness he was feeling right now—and he recognized one of them too well; it was Emily's mother.

He wasn't the only one who noticed. "I know him, Matthew," Emily's mother hissed. If it was her intention River didn't hear this, she'd failed. "He was behind the bar just yet. He's one of the staff." There was a look of disgust on her face as if she had never worked a day in her life and despised anyone who did, which caused River to dislike her. She was very judgmental, unlike her daughter who gave people a chance to explain themselves; she'd forgiven him for his blooper the day they met, something he was still grateful for. It turned out to be the best day of his life.

Ignoring Brooke's comment, he put on a smile. "Yes, that's me." He felt the need to talk formally and his heartbeat had climbed its way up his throat, despite telling himself there was no need to be anxious. It wasn't necessary to make a good impression; he was just here to talk to Emily one last time before he'd lose her forever.

"Why are you here?" Emily's father—as River assumed—asked.

River didn't have an answer to that and found himself stuttering. "I—I was sent up here," he began, immediately cursing himself for starting the sentence with 'I'. That isn't something the elite does, right? "Someone sent me here to check up with the bride," he corrected himself, not wanting to come off as selfish.

"That won't be necessary," Brooke said with a sweet smile. "She's our daughter." River wanted to roll his eyes—somehow, everyone needed to know Brooke was Emily's mother, and it was a fact Brooke wouldn't just let slip by—but refrained from doing it. Instead, he pressed his lips together as Brooke continued, "We can take it from here. And tell whoever sent you here that the bride doesn't want to be interrupted."

He wasn't about to give up so easily and tried again. "Well, we also needed confirmation on—"

"Any questions you can ask Lydia Peck," Brooke interrupted—which was fortunate too, because River had no idea what he needed confirmation on—and she came in between River and the door knob. "A bride shouldn't do the job of a wedding planner, today's already stressful enough."

River felt bad for letting Brooke walk over him and not being able to do anything about it, but he couldn't give away that he was here for more than just a question regarding the wedding.

"Will do," he said, and then he quickly added, "Ma'am." He paused for a second and didn't move while Matthew and Brooke were waiting for him to walk away. However, he wasn't ready to leave yet.

Suddenly, the door opened while neither he nor Brooke had opened it. Instead, Emily stood in the door opening. "Sorry, I'm—" But when she saw River and her parents standing before her door, she couldn't manage to finish her sentence, baffled by the sight before her.

River blushed even more; Emily was already in her wedding dress. And she was gorgeous. It was a simple, white dress with lace detailing all over it, a sweetheart neckline—it was a term he remembered Talia using when talking about fashion—and the bottom subtly flaring out. He could only describe her with the word 'stunning' and all synonyms. Her hair was up, but was taken care of with amazing detail.

Without realizing it, his mouth was slightly open while he admired her.

"Don't worry, darling, he's leaving anyway," Brooke said while making an attempt to walk through the door and past Emily, but Emily blocked her way.

Instead, Emily turned to River, who quickly got himself together and straightened his back while diverting his attention from her dress to Emily herself.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked, directed at River—something that earned her dropped jaws from both her parents.

River felt the blood rushing to his cheeks when Emily's parents looked at him, amazed. He was still speechless from seeing Emily in her wedding dress—and at the same time, the sight had made him realize the big moment was getting really close—and he had trouble getting out words, conscious of everything he said. Her parents were watching every move he made.

"Of-of course," he said, stuttering. Not used to the attention, he tried to act natural when he followed Emily into her room, leaving her parents outside.

* * *

Arghhh almost forgot to upload! I hope you liked this chapter though, despite it being late :)