“Her name is Sarah.”
“How long?”
“Meredith.”
“How long has she been with him?”
His silence answered before his words did.
“Before the accident,” he finally confessed in a low voice.
Nausea rolled through me.
I nodded slowly.
“So there was no accident.”
“There was an accident.”
“What?”
Julian exhaled.
“Adrian was in the car, but he survived. Someone else didn’t.”
I stared at him.
“He took advantage of the accident to disappear.”
Julian’s face tightened.
“He panicked.”
“He faked his d:eath.”
“He thought it was the only way to get out.”
“Out of marrying me?”
Julian looked ashamed.
“Out of everything.”
I stepped backward.
For months, I had imagined Adrian’s last moments.
I wondered if he had been afraid. If he had thought about me.
Instead, he survived and decided pretending to be dead was easier than telling me the truth.
Music began inside the ceremony space.
