That was all they saw when they looked at me.
I inhaled slowly until my shaking hands became steady.
Then I smiled.
Adrian visibly flinched.
“Thank you,” I said calmly.
His mother narrowed her eyes. “For what?”
“For telling me before I walked down the aisle.”
I turned before they could see the crack forming beneath my composure.
Outside the chapel, my maid of honor, June, rushed toward me. “Clara? What happened?”
I kept moving.
“Call the car,” I said.
“Are you crying?”
“No.”
I was. Just not where anyone could see it.
As we passed the open chapel doors, whispers spread through the guests. Adrian’s cousins smirked openly. His business associates stared. Somewhere behind me, someone laughed.
Mrs. Vale’s voice followed me like venom.
“Good girl. At least she knows her place.”
I stopped for exactly one second.
Then I kept walking, chin lifted high, white silk trailing across the red carpet like a battle flag after war.
Inside the car, June grabbed my hand tightly. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
I stared through the window as the chapel shrank behind us.
Inside my purse, beneath my lipstick and folded vows, rested a sealed envelope from the Securities Commission. Next to it sat a flash drive labeled Vale Holdings: Internal Transfers.
