Jilted

"Really, Xander, you're thirteen. You should know how to dress yourself," she told her son irritably. "Try and stay like this for the rest of the day." She took Xander's arm and fixed a smile on her face. "Ok, Violet, let's go." Violet opened the chapel door and led her mother and brother down the aisle. In her stress, she didn't notice that Violet and Xander were not smiling.

Once Ursula reached the end of the aisle, she smiled a happy and excited smile at David, mouthing, "Hi," at him. She kissed both her children who took a seat at the front. Brother and sister began whispering to each other until the master of ceremonies who was officiating the wedding coughed and gave them a stern look which brought a laugh from everyone in the chapel.

The master of ceremonies began the wedding ceremony. He talked about how radiant Ursula looked, how it was such a happy day for Ursula and David and how lucky Violet and Xander were to have David join their family. Both Ursula and David smiled at Violet and Xander at his words. The children smiled sweetly back. Friends then stood up and spoke of what a wonderful couple Ursula and David were and how perfect they were for each other. Any stress Ursula felt left her as happiness consumed her.

Before the vows were taken, the master of ceremonies announced,

"I am now required by state law to ask if anyone here objects to the union of Ursula and David?"

Silence filled the room. There was one or two nervous giggles before Violet and Xander jumped off their seats and shouted in unison,

"We object!"

Ursula spun around and looked horrified at her children. The master of ceremonies almost took a step back in surprise and there were several audible gasps from the guests. David just stared straight ahead slowly shaking his head and laughing in disbelief.

"Violet, Xander, what are you doing this isn't funny!" Ursula's eyes filled with tears not believing what her children had done on the happiest day of her life. Of all their lives.

Violet spoke up for her and Xander as she explained her objection to the guests, "Most of you probably were wondering why Mom and David are getting married so soon and why they moved in with each other so quickly after she separated from Dad. The truth is that they were dating for nearly two years while Mom was still married to Dad. Mom cheated on Dad with David."

"David is this true?" David's parents asked sounding mortified. David didn't reply or even turn around.

Disgusted mutterings started to fill the room.

"Quiet!" Ursula hissed at Violet as panic began to take grip. This was turning into a nightmare. Most of the guests had no idea, it wasn't something she or David had wanted to flaunt.

"We hate David. He is the reason our parents split up," Xander continued. "Our Dad cried all the time because Mom was with David. We had to live with them while Mom was seeing David then Mom forced him on us. We don't want David to marry Mom, we don't want David as our stepdad, we don't want to live with David and we don't even want to know David."

"Mom, if you marry David, we want to live with Dad!" Violet almost snarled at her mother.

"Violet, what are you saying? Please don't do this, both of you," Ursula pleaded with her children. Turning to David, "Give me a minute. I'll talk to them and I'll stop this."

David shook his head and said almost calmly to his bride, "Fuck no! I'm done! I'm not going to live the rest of my life being disrespected every day by those little shits. They don't like me and will never like me and do you know what? I don't like them either. I have wasted too much time and a shit load of money on them and all I got was disrespect. I'll marry you if you choose me over them."

Ursula paused and looked at David in a way that she could never do what she asked.

"I thought not," he said and David began to walk out.

Ursula desperately grabbed his arm, "David, we can fix this!"

"No, no we can't because it isn't broken. It is just the reality of the situation," David then strode out of the chapel.

Tears streamed from Ursula's eyes. Streaks of black stained her face with her mascara running as she watched her groom walk out of her life.

"Why, why have you done this to me!?" she asked her children disconsolately.

"We hate you for what you did to Dad," Xander replied coldly.

"Then you made us live with the guy you cheated on Dad with, who does that?" Violet asked looking furious. "You made Dad's and our lives horrible."

It was like clarity swept over Ursula. All the time she was with David, she never considered that what she was doing would affect her children. Once she and Gary were separated, she was sure they would love David. How could they not? But they never did and would never have. She had permanently damaged her relationship with the two people who she loved the most in the world and they might never love her again.

Ursula just stared at her children and collapsed to the floor sobbing, "I'm sorry, I am so sorry! I never meant to hurt you. I never knew you felt this way. I never thought any of this would happen. I love you! Please, I love you!" she told them holding out her arms imploringly towards them in the now empty chapel. Wanting them to embrace her.

Violet's and Xander's didn't go to their mother. Their brows furrowed as they began to look upset too. Their conspiring had achieved what they wanted but they never expected to turn their mother into the pathetic and broken figure before them.

"Violet, do you have your phone?" her grandmother asked gently. Violet nodded and took out her handbag to show her grandmother. "You and Xander, go back to your rooms and get changed. Call your father to pick you up, you are going to have to live with him full-time for a little while."

"But Mom?" Violet asked worriedly as she looked at her sobbing mother, guilt gripping her tightly.

"Don't worry, about your mother. We'll take care of her. I'll call your father tonight and explain what has happened. You can see your mother in a few days when she has calmed down."

"I'm sorry, we never expected this to happen. We thought she would just be angry with us," Violet said looking distressed.

The children's grandmother embraced the two distraught children as their grandfather gently helped his daughter off the floor and led her out of the chapel. She looked behind her the whole way at her children who now were crying openly too.

"There is no need to apologize. Your grandfather and I never liked David either nor what your mother did to your father. The consequences of what she did to you and your father are now sinking in and it will take a big toll on her. In the long term it will be for the best but in the short term life is going to be very hard. She has your forgiveness to earn and she has to learn that she forced you to do what you did. With your father, she will have to define a new cordial relationship and learn to respect him again as the father of her children. She did a terrible thing. I doubt your father will ever be able to forgive her for as long as he lives. Your mother has a lot of self-healing and learning to do. It might take years of therapy. I love you, Violet. I love you, Xander. Don't worry everything will be okay. Your grandfather and I will always be here for you. Now, let's go home."

The two children left the scene of their mother's brutal undoing at their hands with their grandmother without a second look.