Chapter 3

Every guest in the ballroom stood when the doors opened.

Then they saw Adrian beside me.

The first whisper came from the front row. More followed it until the entire room seemed to breathe around us.

"Where is Julian?"

"That's his father."

"Look at her hand."

I wanted to turn around.

Adrian stopped before we reached the aisle.

"We can still leave," he said quietly.

He did not tell me what would be easier for him. He waited for me to decide what I could survive.

I looked toward the altar.

Julian's place was empty. Claire's bouquet lay on the floor beside the chair where she should have been sitting.

My humiliation had already happened.

Leaving would only let Richard explain it for me.

"I'm going forward."

Adrian offered his arm again.

We entered the aisle together.

He walked more slowly than usual. At first, I thought it was because of his age. Then I realized he was matching my pace so I would not have to struggle to keep up.

Richard caught us halfway to the altar.

He wrapped his hand around my wrist.

"This has gone far enough."

Pain cut through my injured palm.

"Let go of me."

"You will not destroy this family because you received one upsetting message."

Adrian looked at Richard's hand.

"She told you to release her."

"She is my daughter."

"She is an adult."

"She is ill."

Adrian's voice did not rise.

"Release her."

Richard let go.

I continued down the aisle with the handkerchief around my palm and three hundred people watching me bleed through it.

The officiant waited until we reached him.

"Mr. Blackwood," he said carefully, "the marriage license names Julian Blackwood as the groom."

"I know," Adrian said.

"I cannot legally marry you under that license."

Richard stepped forward. "Then this performance is over."

"No," I said.

My voice was not loud, but the microphone carried it through the ballroom.

I turned toward the guests.

"Julian left this morning with my stepsister. I did not cancel the ceremony because my stepfather told me I was too sick to decide what happened next."

Richard moved toward the sound controls.

Adrian's security chief blocked him.

"I know this ceremony will not make us legally married," I continued. "We will handle the license at the courthouse. But I want everyone here to hear the decision before someone else rewrites it for me."

I looked at Adrian.

"I choose him."

The room became silent.

Adrian gave me one final chance to stop. When I did not, he removed a narrow velvet box from his coat.

The ring inside was old. A single diamond sat in a simple platinum band.

I recognized it from newspaper photographs.

It had belonged to Eleanor Blackwood, Adrian's wife. She had disappeared twenty years earlier. Her body had never been found.

"I can't wear that."

"It is the only ring I brought."

"What if she comes back?"

Something passed across his face.

"She won't."

He waited until I held out my hand.

Then he placed the ring on my finger.

It fit perfectly.

The officiant led us through a short public vow. No one applauded when it ended.

Adrian did not kiss me immediately.

"May I?" he asked.

I nodded.

His hand settled against my waist. I lifted my face toward his.

Our lips had barely touched when pain tore through my chest.

The ballroom tilted.

My knees gave way, but I never reached the floor.

Adrian caught me and lowered me carefully into his arms.

"Evelyn. Look at me."

Richard pushed through the guests.

"She needs her medication."

Adrian looked at him.

"You said she was confused because she had already taken it."

Richard stopped moving.

I tried to hold on to that contradiction.

Then the lights above me disappeared.