My voice carried farther than I expected.
Perhaps because no one else dared move.
My father took one step forward.
“Amelia, this isn’t the place.”
I looked at him.
For years, I had imagined what I would say if he ever stood in front of me again.
In those imagined conversations, I shouted.
I listed every night I had gone hungry, every school form I signed alone, every birthday when the phone stayed silent.
But standing there, I felt no need to prove the past to him.
“You’re right,” I said.
“A wedding should never have become this.”
Relief crossed his face too quickly.
Then I added, “I didn’t make it this.”
His eyes dropped.
Bianca pointed at me.
“She planned this.
Why else would she come without telling anyone who she was?”
“I came as your stepsister,” I said.
“You came to inspect your property.”
“No.
I had the quarterly inspection moved to another week so it wouldn’t interfere with your wedding.”
Julian glanced at the ballroom manager, who nodded.
Bianca noticed.
“You’re all taking her side because she has money.”
“No,” Julian said.
“I’m asking why my bride assaulted a guest in front of two hundred people.”
“She’s not a guest.
She’s—”
Bianca stopped herself.
The unfinished word hung between us.
Nothing.
That was what she had been about to say.
Julian heard it too.
He set the folder on the nearest table and looked at the red mark spreading across my cheek.
“Did she touch you before today?” he asked me.
Bianca answered first.
“Don’t encourage her.”
I kept my eyes on Julian.
“Not since we were teenagers.”
“That is not an answer,” Bianca snapped.
“She used to provoke me constantly.”
“With cream dresses?” I asked.
Diane made a small sound near the head table.
It was barely audible, but my father turned toward her.
Bianca’s gaze shifted.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“The dress stained with wine,” I said.
“The night I was ordered out.”
Her expression changed for only a second.
Most people would have missed it.
I didn’t.
Neither did Julian.
Bianca recovered quickly.
“You ruined it because you were jealous.”
“I never touched it.”
“You always said that.”
