Chương 14
Elena’s breathing grew shallow.
Margaret noticed but did not mention it.
Tess reached from the back seat and placed a hand between the front seats, palm up.
Elena took it.
At the gate, a security guard leaned toward the driver’s window.
“Mrs. Rowan,” he said, “Mr. Bellamy asked that you use the south entrance.”
“We’ll use the front,” Elena replied.
The guard looked at her.
“I have instructions.”
“So do I,” Elena said.
He stepped back.
They drove to the main entrance.
Guests stood on the terrace holding drinks. Conversation thinned as Elena emerged from the car. Faces turned, then turned away with exaggerated courtesy.
A cousin hurried forward.
“Oh, thank God. Vivian said you were ill.”
“I’m not ill.”
The cousin’s smile faltered. “Well. You look wonderful.”
“Thank you.”
It was such an absurd response that Elena nearly laughed.
Inside, staff circulated with trays. The white roses from the fitting room had been moved to the entrance hall. A string quartet played near the staircase, though half the chairs remained empty.
Adrian stood beside the library doors.
He did not approach Elena. He waited until she came to him.
“You shouldn’t have brought an audience,” he said.
Tess answered, “You invited sixty people.”
Elena touched her arm.
Adrian looked at Margaret. “The foundation vote failed.”
Margaret had not checked her phone.
“What failed?” Elena asked.
“Her motion to release our pledge. The board postponed action.”
“This isn’t about the foundation,” Margaret said.
Adrian’s eyes remained on Elena. “Can we speak privately?”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
A few nearby guests pretended not to listen.
Vivian crossed the hall. “There you are.”
Her relief appeared genuine until she saw Elena’s expression.
“Perhaps we should go upstairs,” she said.
“I’m staying here,” Elena replied.
Adrian lowered his voice. “You are making a spectacle.”
“No. I canceled a wedding. You held the dinner.”
“This gathering is for people who traveled across the country to support us.”
“There is no us.”
The words reached farther than Elena intended.
The quartet faltered. One violin continued alone for two notes, then stopped.
Conversation died across the entrance hall.
Adrian glanced around.
He could no longer contain the moment privately, and everyone saw the instant he understood that.
“Elena,” he said, “please.”
She removed the velvet box from her purse.
He looked at it.
“I am not marrying you.”
No one moved.
Vivian shut her eyes.
Adrian’s face remained controlled, but a muscle worked beneath his jaw.
“You are injured and exhausted,” he said. “You have been under pressure for months. I am not going to treat a decision made in this condition as final.”
“It is final.”
“You said the same thing in January, then apologized.”
“I apologized for getting out of the car.”
“You terrified me.”
“You wouldn’t pull over.”
“You were irrational.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Of you.”
The words seemed to strike him harder than shouting might have.
Adrian looked around at the watching guests. “You know that is not true.”
“I know you blocked the door last night.”
“You were trying to leave while intoxicated.”
“I had one glass of wine.”
“You hadn’t eaten.”
“You took my phone.”
“To keep you from making this exact mistake.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Adrian heard his own words too late.
Elena’s hand trembled around the ring box.
“You think leaving you is a mistake you are allowed to prevent,” she said.
“I think people who love each other stop each other from destroying their lives during moments of panic.”
“You left marks across my back.”
His eyes flickered toward her dress.
“I stopped you from falling.”
“No.”
“You pulled away from me.”
“Yes.”
“You hit the screen.”
“Because you held me against it.”
Adrian’s voice rose for the first time. Not to a shout, but enough that the room heard the strain beneath his control.
“That is not what happened.”
Elena flinched.
Margaret moved instinctively.
Elena raised one hand without looking at her.
Wait.
Adrian saw the gesture.
His face changed.
“Your mother has been waiting for this,” he said. “She has never accepted that you chose a life she couldn’t control.”
Margaret felt every gaze turn toward her.
Elena did not.
“This is not about her.”
“It has been about her from the moment you left.”
“No.”
“She told the foundation board I assaulted you.”
“She told them what she saw.”
“She saw bruises after you lost your balance.”
“I did not lose my balance.”
“You were drinking.”
“One glass.”
“You threw a glass at me last month.”
The room shifted again.
There it was: the document selected, the mistake stored, the worst moment made useful.
Elena went pale.
Adrian’s voice softened as he sensed the change.
“I didn’t want to say that publicly,” he told her. “You forced me.”
For several seconds, Elena said nothing.
Margaret wanted to step forward. Tess’s fingers closed around her wrist.
Not yet.
Elena looked around the room. At Vivian. At Claire near the library doors. At the museum director standing beside the fireplace. At cousins, donors, old friends, and strangers who had traveled for a wedding and received a trial instead.
Then she looked back at Adrian.
“I threw a glass into the kitchen sink,” she said.
He blinked.
“I was angry. I wanted to frighten you. I did frighten you.”
Adrian’s shoulders lowered slightly.
“I was wrong,” Elena continued. “I cleaned it up. I lied about how I cut my hand because I was ashamed.”
A few guests looked down.
Adrian opened his mouth.
Elena spoke over him.
“That does not give you the right to take my phone. It does not give you the right to lock a door, block a doorway, hold my arms, or press me against a wall until I stop trying to leave.”
His expression hardened. “I never pressed you against a wall.”
“The screen.”
“I prevented you from falling into it.”
“No.”
“You were not thinking clearly.”
May you like
“I am thinking clearly now.”
“You are repeating language your mother gave you.”
