I stared at him.
I wanted him to ask where I had been. I wanted him to ask why I was shaking. I wanted him to ask who did this to me. Instead, he looked at me like I was trash dragged in from the street.
I looked past him.
At the woman in white.
Roxanne.
My younger sister.
The girl I raised... The girl who cried in my arms when she was scared. The girl who called me sister like it meant something.
She would not meet my eyes.
Westley laughed softly from his seat.
My mother’s scream sliced through the room.
“You disgusting girl! Where have you been hiding?! David treated you like a queen and you repay him by sleeping with criminals? You disappear for a year and still dare come back here? Have you no shame? Do you want our whole family to be laughed at?”
Cheated? Me?
That was the word they chose? Huh. I almost laughed. My throat hurts too much. So this was the story…
Then an arm wrapped around my shoulder.
I froze.
Westley leaned close, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. His smile was polite. His voice was low.
“Still pretending we are strangers?” he said. “You really never learn, baby. I taught you obedience every night. Do you want me to remind you again in front of everyone?”
My knees went weak.
My body remembered before my mind did.
Whispers exploded around us.
“So that’s the man she ran off with.”
“No wonder Mr. Vanderbilt is remarrying. Any man would.”
“She comes from nothing. Look how low she fell.”
“Her mother worked this wedding like a maid. And her son is serving drinks. This whole family knows their place.”
David strode over, jaw tight, eyes irritated like I was an inconvenience. “Did you really have to come today?” he snapped under his breath. “I worked for a year on this. I wanted Roxanne to have a perfect wedding. Everything was finally peaceful. And you show up like this. Are you doing this on purpose?”
Just a wedding.
That was all it was to him.
Not the year I spent bleeding.
Not the nights I was beaten until I passed out.
Not the days I was starved until I licked rotten food off the floor just to stay alive.
All of it was just groundwork. A clean excuse. A pretty lie so he could stand here and marry my sister with everyone cheering.
Something inside me collapsed.
I walked toward my son.
“R-ryle,” I whispered. “Baby, come with Mama. We are going home.”
He looked at me like I was a ghost. Then he dropped to his knees so fast the tray crashed to the floor.