The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

Author:Jamie Brenner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466845367
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

sixteen

On the surface, it was a normal Monday morning. Hugh with his tattered brown leather briefcase in hand—Meryl could almost pretend he was on his way to Yardley. But she knew that inside the briefcase, instead of student papers to grade and laptop filled with lesson plans, his computer was loaded up with his manuscript in progress.

“Meryl, don’t make any commitments with wedding vendors until we finish this conversation,” Hugh said, closing the door behind him. By “this conversation,” he meant the two-hour argument they had driving home from Philly about Jo’s engagement—the third wedding.

“I’d always known suicides were contagious,” Hugh had said, “but not engagements.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say. These are our children.”

“Meryl, it doesn’t matter. We’re throwing one party—one—and the girls can share it, or you can hand all this off to their rich future mothers-in-law and let them take care of it. Or we can find some way to space this out over time. But I’m not going to go bankrupt throwing three weddings this year.”

It was difficult to argue with him. Two was challenging enough, but now three? She was fighting a losing battle, and her moral high ground had turned into a wet, slushy marsh.

The phone rang, jolting her from her thoughts.

“Hello?” she answered, opening up her DayMinder calendar on the kitchen counter. She still couldn’t convert to a digital planner. If she couldn’t see the day’s tasks written in front of her in her own handwriting, she felt unmoored.

“I’m calling for Meryl Becker,” a woman said.

“Speaking.”

“Hi, Meryl—this is Jennifer Jedell from New York magazine. I’m working on a piece about your daughters’ engagements.”

“My daughters?”

“Yes. It’s quite a story and apparently keeps getting better. A political powerhouse, fashion royalty, and actual royalty. I mean, bravo, if I do say so myself. We haven’t seen a trio of New York women marry this well since the Miller sisters in the late ’90s.”

Meryl had no idea how to respond to that.

“Can you tell me anything about the wedding plans?” the woman asked.

“It’s still early.”

“Will all three weddings take place within this calendar year? Because frankly, that makes it an even more interesting story.”

A little too interesting, Meryl thought.

“We really don’t know yet.”

“Okay, well, let me give you my contact info. It would be a huge help if you could keep me posted.”

After the initial surprise wore off, the publicist in Meryl snapped to attention. “Whom are you speaking to for this article?”

“I can’t share my sources. But if your daughters would like to cooperate, I would of course welcome their input.”

“What did you say your name was again?” Meryl wrote her name and phone number down, and as soon as the call ended, Googled her. The search produced a dozen articles about socialites and celebrities, with snarky headlines like, PRETTY IN THE AGE OF SUCK CITY. The content of the articles had no less bite. She immediately called the girls and left them voice mail messages.

“It’s Mom. If a reporter from New York magazine calls, don’t speak to her.

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