Chapter 5
A woman in an ivory suit stepped out of the black sedan.
She brought no lawyers and made no attempt to clear the press.
She showed the staff a card identifying her as Maison Lune’s North American director, then took a seat at the table one of the sponsors had abandoned.
Ruthie handed me the card. One sentence was handwritten on the back.
Keep going. I want to see how you end tonight.
The note promised nothing. I slipped the card into my pocket and told the kitchen to continue serving.
After the first course went out, the quartet switched to dinner music. Champagne corks struck the ceiling. Guests who had been preparing to leave slowed down. Some returned to their tables. Others kept filming.
The six-tier wedding cake still stood in the center of the ballroom. Our initials, C and J, were woven together in frosting. Two figures made to look like us waited on top.
The pastry chef approached me. “Should we remove it?”
“No,” I said. “Cut it.”
Julian looked up from across the room. Eleanor watched too, her champagne untouched.
I took the silver cake knife and sliced through the letter J. The camera operator stayed back, using a long lens to follow my hands.
Red filling spread across the white plate.
“Ruthie, bring Sienna in.”
She hadn’t left the estate. Reporters blocked the main entrance, so she had been waiting in a room beside the conservatory.
When she entered the ballroom, the pearl was gone from her ear. The custom red still stained her lips, smeared where she had tried to wipe it away.
The guests opened a path for her.
I offered her the first slice of cake.
She didn’t take it. “Claire, please let me explain. I never thought that footage would appear on the screen.”
“You regret that people saw it?”
Sienna lowered her head.
Julian rose from his chair. “Stop filming. You can’t trust anything she says right now.”
For three years, Sienna had handled angry clients by straightening her back, opening her schedule, and calmly solving the problem. Now she couldn’t look at the plate.
“Take the cake,” I said.
She finally held out both hands. The china rattled between her fingers.
“The lipstick,” I said. “Did you take it from my dressing room, or did Julian buy it for you?”
Sienna looked at him.
“Look at me.”
“He bought it,” she said. “He said you wouldn’t notice.”
I took the pearls from my pocket and set them beside the cake.
“What about my mother’s earrings?”
“I was going to put them back.”
“Did someone tell you to take them?”
She didn’t answer. Julian started around the table, but Eleanor spoke before he reached us.
“That’s enough. You got the spectacle you wanted.”
I looked at Sienna. “Why is she answering for you?”
A tear landed beside the cake. Sienna didn’t wipe her face. She stared at the pearls.
“Eleanor saw us before the ceremony.”
The quartet kept playing, and comments continued racing across the livestream. No one at the nearest tables spoke.
Eleanor lowered her glass. “Be very careful about what you say next.”
Sienna drew a breath. “She saw Julian and me coming out of the side hall before the ceremony. She saw the earrings and the lipstick.”
“And then?”
“She told me not to say anything.” Sienna’s fingers pressed into the cake. “She said once you finished the vows, she would handle the rest.”
I looked at Eleanor. She didn’t deny it. Her fingers tightened around the stem of her glass.
The lie hadn’t stayed hidden in that hallway. Someone had watched the door open and sent me back to the altar anyway.
Eleanor’s champagne glass slipped from her hand.
It shattered in front of the livestream camera.