fraud.”
The chapel erupted into chaos. Whispers turned into loud murmurs. Julian’s mother stood up, screaming at the top of her lungs, “Call security! Get these liars out of my son’s wedding!”
“Shut up, Eleanor,” I said, turning my head slightly to look at her. The sheer ice in my voice stopped her dead in her tracks.
I turned back to Julian, who was staring at the papers in absolute horror. He looked at Fiona, his voice cracking. “Fiona… what did you do? You said this money was from your family’s trust. You said you legally transferred it.”
“She lied, Julian,” I said softly. “Just like she lied to you about why she wanted to get rid of me so badly. She knew that as long as I was your wife, my lawyers would keep a close eye on the family assets. She needed me out of the picture so she could access the accounts without my signature.”
Fiona sank onto her knees, the heavy lace of her wedding dress pooling around her like a shroud. She covered her face with her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. “I did it for us, Julian! We needed the penthouse. We needed to show them we were better than her!”
“Better than me?” I let out a low, melodic laugh that silenced the remaining noise in the room. I took a step closer to Julian, looking up into his pale, panicked face. “You called me broken, Julian. Your mother called me barren. You left me because you thought my body couldn’t give you the one thing your ego demanded: an heir.”
I gently peeled back the cashmere blanket, revealing my daughter’s face to the light. She blinked, her dark blue eyes opening slightly, staring up at the grand ceiling of the church before closing again with a soft sigh.
Julian stopped breathing. He stared down at the baby, his hands shaking so violently the legal papers fluttered to the stone floor. “Is… is that…?”
“This is your daughter, Julian,” I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “She was born three weeks ago. While you were busy planning this circus and picking out flower arrangements with my stolen money, I was in a hospital bed, bringing a healthy, perfect life into this world.”
He reached out a trembling hand, his fingers stopping inches from the blanket. “My God… Elena… why didn’t you tell me? We could have worked it out. We could have been a family.”
“Because you didn’t deserve her,” I said, stepping back out of his reach. “You left me because you thought I was worthless. You wanted to see what a ‘real woman’ looked like? Look around you, Julian. Your new bride is facing a federal indictment, your company accounts are frozen, and your reputation in this city is entirely dead.”
I took a deep, steady breath, feeling the last remnants of the old pain evaporate into the cold air of the church. I felt light. I felt entirely free.
