Chương 3
“Nothing.”
Adrian turned his head.
“Try again.”
Vincent’s eyes sharpened with irritation, but the irritation looked borrowed, something he had grabbed because fear was harder to explain.
“This is my wedding.”
“I noticed.”
“Then maybe don’t interrogate my wife in front of two hundred people.”
“She’s not your wife yet,” Adrian said.
Madison flinched.
The groom’s jaw set.
At the far end of the ballroom, the quartet began playing again because someone in hotel management had apparently decided silence was more dangerous than music.
The melody came back hesitant and thin.
Elena glanced toward Mr. Kim.
He was pretending to rearrange place cards while watching everything.
She wanted him to come over now.
She wanted him to tell her to return to the service hall, clock out, do anything that restored the ordinary hierarchy of the afternoon.
Instead, he stayed where he was.
“Elena,” Vincent said.
She looked at him.
His voice had changed.
He sounded careful now.
Polite.
That frightened her more than anything else.
“Maybe we should talk somewhere private.”
“No.”
Madison whispered his name.
Vincent ignored her.
“Elena, I can explain.”
“You just told her you thought I wouldn’t be here.”
“That came out wrong.”
“There aren’t many ways for that to come out.”
A guest coughed behind them.
Someone else scraped a chair back, then stopped when the noise drew attention.
Elena pressed her palms flat against the edge of the table.
Her fingertips had gone numb.
Adrian watched Vincent with the stillness of a man restraining himself from doing something physical.
“What did you do?” he asked.
Vincent laughed once without humor.
“There you go.”
“What did you do?”
“You always do this.”
Adrian’s expression barely changed.
“This isn’t about me.”
“It’s always about you when you walk into a room and decide everyone else is guilty.”
Madison said, “Vincent, stop.”
“No, I’m tired of it.”
He pointed toward Adrian with two fingers.
“You don’t get to turn my wedding into one of your investigations because some waitress happens to have a familiar name.”
Elena’s face went hot.
Adrian’s eyes shifted to Vincent’s hand.
“Don’t call her that.”
Elena looked at him sharply.
“I am a waitress today.”
Adrian glanced at her.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t make it something else.”
“Both of you,” Madison said.
Her voice cracked on the last word.
That finally pulled the room fully quiet again.
She lowered her voice.
“Please.”
Vincent looked at her.
For the first time since the confrontation began, something tender appeared in his face.
It lasted less than a second.
Then he looked past her toward the guests and straightened his jacket.
“We’re going into the hall.”
Elena shook her head.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You’re not in danger.”
“You don’t get to tell me that.”
Adrian’s eyes returned to her.
“What danger?”
Elena immediately regretted the word.
She had not meant to give him anything.
Vincent saw the regret.
Madison saw it too.
Adrian saw everything.
“Elena.”
She looked away.
The white flowers on the nearest table had tiny beads of water along their stems where someone had misted them before the reception.
One petal had fallen beside a bread plate.
It was ridiculous that she noticed it.
Her mind had always done that under pressure, finding some useless detail and holding onto it like a railing.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“What danger?”
“None.”
“That’s not what you said.”
“I misspoke.”
“You don’t misspeak when you’re scared.”
The certainty in his tone angered her.
“You don’t know what I do anymore.”
He went quiet.
The words landed where she intended them to.
That did not make her feel better.
Vincent stepped forward.
“See?”
Adrian looked at him.
“See what?”
“She wants to leave.”
“She wants answers.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Elena stared at Vincent.
“How would you know?”
Vincent froze.
Madison closed her eyes briefly.
There it was again.
A wrong answer delivered before anyone had asked the right question.
Adrian took one step toward his brother.
“Start talking.”
Vincent looked around the room.
Guests were no longer pretending not to watch.
A woman near the windows held her phone at chest height, screen glowing.
Another guest leaned toward her and whispered something.
Vincent’s face changed when he noticed.
His fear became practical.
“Phones down,” he said.
Nobody moved.
He raised his voice.
“Seriously, can we have a little privacy?”
The woman lowered her phone halfway.
Adrian’s stare followed it.
Then he turned back to Vincent.
“You’re worried about a video.”
“I’m worried about my wedding.”
Madison swallowed.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
“Stop saying that.”
He looked at her.
“What am I supposed to say?”
“The truth would be a start.”
The words came so quietly that Elena almost missed them.
Vincent stared at his bride.
Madison’s shoulders rose with a breath.
Her fingers pinched the lace at her waist.
Adrian looked between them.
Elena felt something inside her begin to settle.
Fear was still there, but confusion had started giving way to something colder.
“What truth?” she asked.
Madison looked at her.
“I didn’t know you were working this wedding.”
Elena waited.
Madison continued.
“I knew your name.”
Vincent cursed under his breath.
Adrian’s face hardened.
“How?”
Madison looked at Vincent.
He shook his head once.
She ignored him.
“Because it was on a document.”
Elena’s heartbeat stumbled.
“What document?”
Madison’s eyes dropped.
“A settlement.”
Adrian said, “Whose settlement?”
Nobody answered.
His voice lowered.
“Whose?”
Vincent turned away and ran both hands through his hair.
The movement disturbed the careful styling his barber had probably spent an hour creating.
“Mine.”
Elena stared at him.
“I’ve never signed a settlement with you.”
“I know.”
The answer came immediately.
Too immediately.
She felt the numbness leave her hands.
“What did you settle?”
Vincent looked toward Madison as though she might rescue him.
She folded her arms tightly across herself.
He was alone.
“It wasn’t exactly a settlement.”
Adrian exhaled through his nose.
May you like
“Jesus Christ.”
Vincent snapped, “You want to do this here?”
