Isabella lowered her bouquet.
Julian turned toward her.
“Don’t listen to this.
Annie has always known how to make herself look helpless.”
Annie almost smiled.
There it was—the old instinct.
When charm failed, he attacked the person he once controlled.
Isabella saw it too.
“You told me she abandoned you,” Isabella said.
“She did.”
“You told me she resented your success and disappeared when your career began.”
“That’s what happened.”
Greg closed his eyes.
Annie opened the folder once more and removed a photocopy of a document she had not looked at in years.
It was not part of Silas’s property records.
It was the final page of her divorce filing.
Attached to it was the sheriff’s inventory from the night Julian changed the locks and placed her belongings outside.
She did not hand it to the guests.
She gave it to Isabella.
“The filing date is two days after he locked me out,” Annie said.
“The address listed for service is the apartment above the diner where my manager let me sleep until I found somewhere else.”
Isabella read the page.
Julian reached for it.
She stepped back.
“You said she left you for another man.”
“I simplified things.
We were miserable.”
“You lied.”
“Isabella, every divorced couple has competing stories.”
“This is not a competing story.
This is a court record.”
Beatrice moved toward her.
“Darling, do not let this woman destroy a political alliance over an emotional misunderstanding.”
Isabella looked at her.
“A political alliance?”
Beatrice realized too late what she had said.
Julian whispered, “Mother.”
But Isabella had already turned back to him.
“Was that what this marriage was to you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why did you spend your wedding day staging revenge against a woman you claim not to care about?”
Julian’s face hardened.
“Because she held me back.”
The words came too quickly.
The room heard them.
Annie heard them.
And Isabella heard the contempt beneath them—not just for Annie, but for anyone whose labor Julian considered beneath his own success.
“She paid your tuition,” Isabella said.
“I would have succeeded without her.”
“Perhaps.
But you didn’t have to.”
Julian looked toward the guests for support.
He found none.
Isabella removed her engagement ring.
Beatrice inhaled sharply.
“Do not be theatrical,” she warned.
