“Too late,” I said.
Linda tapped her pen against the contract.
“If he’s unfaithful,” she said, “he gets nothing. No access to your trust fund, no shared assets, no spousal support. But you need proof.”
“I’ll have proof,” I said.
Linda studied me the way Daniel had. Like she was trying to understand how I could be so calm.
“You don’t look surprised,” she said.
“I’m not,” I admitted.
“Then why are you still having a wedding?” she asked.
That question hovered for days.
Why not cancel?
Why not walk away quietly?
The answer wasn’t just about deposits, though deposits mattered. Venues don’t refund heartbreak. Caterers don’t care about betrayal. A ballroom doesn’t turn sympathetic because your life fell apart.
But it wasn’t only practicality.
It was anger.
Not the kind that explodes. The kind that settles, steady and hot, like a coal in your chest.
Melissa had spent my whole life making herself the center of every moment. She’d stolen attention, joy, even grief. She’d taken my hardest days and made them about her reactions.
And James… James had decided I was easy to deceive because I was polite. He thought my quiet meant I was weak. He thought my smile meant I didn’t see.
I wanted them to think they were winning.
Right up until the moment they lost everything.
So I kept planning the wedding.
I chose the downtown hotel ballroom with the balcony and the skyline view, because if I was going to end something, I wanted it to end under lights that made people look honest.
I chose the menu: salmon, short rib, an open bar because my father insisted guests should never feel shorted.
I chose the band.
And I arranged for a large projection screen to be installed.
“For the couple slideshow,” I told Kelsey.
“Of course,” she said, delighted. “That’ll be beautiful.”
I told James I wanted it to feel special.
He smiled.
He had no idea how special it would be.
Melissa played her part perfectly.
She attended fittings. She went to cake tastings. She clung to my arm for photos and told everyone how excited she was, how proud she felt to be my sister.
And when she thought no one was watching, she tested boundaries the way she always did.
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