Her eyes remained dry while mine filled with tears, and after biting my lip until I tasted blood I finally nodded because I could not watch my father lose everything.
The wedding took place inside a historic estate outside Savannah where white marble columns glowed under thousands of soft lights. Wealthy guests arrived wearing designer gowns and tailored suits worth more than my father’s entire business had ever been worth. I wore a heavy ivory bridal gown decorated with delicate gold embroidery that felt beautiful but strangely suffocating.
Julian Bennings waited near the front of the ceremony hall wearing a perfectly tailored black suit while sitting in a sleek wheelchair. His posture was straight and confident, yet his face looked calm and unreadable like carved stone. Throughout the ceremony he barely spoke, and his dark eyes followed every movement I made with an intensity that made my heart beat faster.
The reception ended late at night when the final guests finished their champagne toasts, and soon afterward we were escorted upstairs to the private bridal suite prepared for us inside the estate.