“This is a wedding!” he said sharply. “Whatever nonsense you came to say can wait until tomorrow. Look at you. Dirty. Bloody. You stink. Leave now and do not ruin this.”
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.