Julian pulled his arm away.
“Elena, not here.”
“Not here? You told me—”
“Stop.”
The word came out harder than he intended.
Several guests turned toward him.
Elena stared at him as if she had never heard him speak that way before.
Chloe looked between them.
“What does Julian have to do with this?”
No one answered.
Then Julian looked down at the box.
For the first time since arriving, he seemed genuinely afraid.
And I realized that the box had revealed something much larger than Elena’s absence.
It had exposed a lie that had survived for fifteen years.
The wedding coordinator quietly asked whether we should move the guests to the garden for a few minutes.
Chloe shook her head.
“Thank you, but no. Everyone can decide for themselves whether they want to stay.”
She turned to her mother.
“Mom, I need an honest answer. Did you ever try to contact us?”
