Chapter 2

Last October was the month I buried my mother.

Daniel had named the date, and my grip tightened around my purse.

Mom was buried on October fourth.

Four days later, he left for what he called a mandatory weekend training session.

It was the first time he had left me after the funeral.

Before going, he stocked the refrigerator and labeled every container with reheating instructions.

He even unpacked Mom’s brass clock, polished it, and placed it on my mantel.

I had once believed that was the week Daniel loved me most.

Now Celeste stood beside that same clock, waiting to marry him.

“When in October?” I asked.

Daniel rubbed his forehead. “Does the exact date matter?”

“It matters to me.”

“We don’t need to discuss our private lives in front of the staff.” He turned to the coordinator, his polite voice returning. “Could we have a few minutes?”

She looked at me before moving.

My name was on the hotel contract, and I had paid most of the costs for the evening ceremony.

Here, at least, Daniel couldn’t speak for me.

“Please send me every revision made to both wedding schedules,” I told her. “Include the original submission dates.”

Daniel stiffened. “There’s no reason to drag the staff into this.”

“They’re contract records. She’s doing her job.”

The coordinator nodded and led the others off the terrace.

Less than a minute later, an email appeared on my phone.

Celeste moved closer to Daniel.

“You can ask us whatever you want,” she said. “There’s no reason to hide it anymore.”

“You’ve hidden it for a year.”

“Because Daniel was worried you couldn’t handle the truth.”

She spoke as though allowing my fiancé to stay with me had been an act of generosity.

I opened the hotel records. The first change to the schedule was dated October eighth—the weekend of Daniel’s supposed training session.

He had called me once that Saturday. The call lasted less than three minutes.

He said his coworkers were waiting downstairs for dinner, then reminded me to get some sleep.

That same day, Celeste had paid the deposit for the North Terrace.

The note below the payment read:

Groom Daniel Cross has confirmed the date.

I held the phone out to him. “You booked a wedding with her four days after my mother’s funeral.”

“It wasn’t that simple.”

“Which part is complicated? The date or the bride?”

He looked away. “I didn’t expect things to go this far.”

Celeste gave a quiet laugh. “You confirmed the date.”

Daniel’s gaze shifted back to me. “I kept telling myself I would end it before either wedding happened.”

“Don’t rewrite this now,” Celeste said.

Daniel squeezed her hand, reassuring her with the ease of habit. Whatever he had once intended, they had been doing this for a long time.

“You told me you were at a training session,” I said.

“You could barely eat.” Daniel lowered his voice. “You had just lost your mother. How was I supposed to leave you then?”

“So you stayed with me while booking a wedding with her?”

“I was protecting you.”

He stepped closer and softened his tone—the same voice he used whenever he wanted me to accept a decision he had already made.

“I kept telling myself I’d end things with Celeste once you were stronger,” he said. “Every time I tried, she asked me to prove I hadn’t used her. I still loved you, and I couldn’t bear to watch you lose one more person. So I kept moving the deadline until there was no honest way left out.”

He made a year of lies sound like an unfortunate scheduling problem.

I remembered the dinners he had prepared after the funeral. The medical bills he had sorted for me. The nights he sat beside the bed and told me I didn’t have to recover quickly.

Afterward, he must have left the room and planned another wedding with Celeste.

“You could have told me on any of those days,” I said. “Why wait until I was standing in front of our guests?”

Daniel opened his mouth, then closed it.

I turned back to the afternoon schedule and pointed to the farewell video set for 5:07.

“Whose idea was this?”

Celeste smiled.

Daniel’s gaze flicked toward me. “I told her it was cruel.”

Celeste’s fingers tightened around his hand. “Then you agreed.”

Daniel didn’t deny it. “Celeste thought you needed to see who I chose.”