Until that day, the bride had no idea her groom was cheating on her; turned out, he had a whole other life outside of their relationship.
There was a lovely couple who worked in the local neighborhood bakery in my old hometown. Everyone knew they were headed for the altar. It was clear from the moment they began dating.
You never saw a couple more in love.
Unfortunately, the man had a secret, and he kept that secret from his beloved until his wedding day.
After the couple recited their vows, and all their guests agreed it was the wedding of the decade, the newly minted husband introduced his blushing bride to someone very special.
"I'd like you to meet my girlfriend," he said, introducing her to a woman who was an invited guest.
The woman was cradling an infant in her arms.
"And this is my son," he continued.
That's right. This man was leading a double life and decided that his wedding day was the perfect opportunity to come clean about it. There were so many things wrong with the situation.
If he wanted to confess to cheating, he should have done it before he and his bride said their vows in front of all their closest family and friends... and his girlfriend. Obviously, he shouldn't have been cheating at all, but his approach didn't leave his wife a lot of opportunities to decide what to do next.
She could have stormed out of the church and demanded an annulment. Surely, she would have been well within her rights to do so, but she didn't. Instead, she did her very best to make sure none of the other guests found out about her surprise "guest of honor."
Did she throw the woman out of the wedding hall? I don't know. I was very young when this incident took place, and there aren't a lot of people who were there whom I can ask about it. Would they even remember? I think so.
Although the wedding day was over in an instant, their marriage lasted for decades. Last I heard, they were still married. The groom's infant son is now a grown man with a wife and children of his own. Time does fly, and even situations like this one are temporary.
Most of the invited guests probably went back to their own lives, their own problems, and their own situation-ships as soon as the wedding cake was cut. It was a bit of a local neighborhood scandal, but small close-knit communities have plenty of those.
There's always something unsavory or unusual going on behind closed doors.
Although I'll never know whether the bride regretted the cool and calm way she handled her wedding day surprise, I have to commend her on keeping her pride and her wits about her when the going got tough. Unlike the groom, she seemed to know exactly what her wedding vows meant, and she's keeping them till death do they part.
She already had the "for better or worse" part handled since her wedding day.
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