Are you okay?
Is it true?
Call me.
I always knew something was off about him.
That last one came from a woman who had toasted Julian at rehearsal dinner and called us “a perfect match.”
I turned my phone face down.
Maya watched me quietly.
“You don’t have to be made of steel today,” she said.
“I’m not.”
“You look like it.”
“That’s different.”
Before she could answer, there was a knock at the suite door.
Samir entered, carrying a slim gray folder.
“He’s here,” he said.
Maya stood. “Already?”
Samir nodded. “Lobby. With two security men and his father’s attorney.”
Julian.
Of course.
Men like him never understood locked doors until they were standing outside one.
I went to the bedroom mirror and looked at myself. Cream dress. Bare finger. One red mark fading along my cheek.
A bride in ruins.
No.
Not ruins.
Evidence.
When I returned to the sitting room, Adrian was already on the phone.
“You do not have to meet him,” he said.
“I know.”
“Elena.”
“I need him to say it.”
Adrian went quiet.
Then he understood.
“You’re recording?”
“Maya is.”
Maya lifted a small device from the table.
Adrian exhaled. “Ten minutes. No more.”
Julian entered the suite at 11:37.
He looked wrecked in a way money could not repair quickly enough. His tie was gone. His hair was disordered. His eyes went first to my cheek, then to Maya, then to Samir, then back to me.
“Elena,” he said.
No anger now. Only calculation wearing regret’s clothes.
I stood by the window with Manhattan’s distant skyline blurred beyond the glass.
“You have eight minutes.”
His mouth tightened. “You’re enjoying this.”
“No.”
“Then stop it.”
“There it is,” Maya murmured.
Julian ignored her.
“Elena, I made a mistake. I lost control for one second.”
“You lost control because I spoke back.”
His face flushed.
“My mother provoked the situation.”
“She seasoned the room. You lit the match.”
He stepped closer, then stopped when Samir moved half an inch.
Julian noticed. Good.
“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” he said. “My family’s company employs thousands of people.”
“And your family used those people as shields every time someone questioned you.”
“My father built that company.”
“My father’s pension helped save it.”
That struck him.
For one second, Julian looked genuinely confused.
