Chapter 2: Fourteen Months
My mother stopped when she saw me.
The veil was still in her hands.
My grandmother's veil.
The one she had promised me on her deathbed.
"Juliet." Her voice was careful.
"Let me explain."
"Don't," I said.
Sienna stepped forward.
"Mom did this for both of us.
You'll understand eventually."
"For both of us," I repeated.
Nobody moved.
Then Graham looked at my mother and said, very quietly, "You told me she already knew."
My mother's jaw tightened.
"I told you I would handle it."
And there it was.
This wasn't a secret they had kept from me for days.
Or weeks.
I looked at Graham.
"How long?"
He didn't answer.
"How long?" I asked again.
Sienna touched his arm.
He looked at the floor.
My mother set the veil down on the velvet sofa.
Carefully.
Like it was still mine.
"Fourteen months," she said.
Fourteen months.
Two months before Graham had ever proposed to me.
I thought about the ring on my finger.
The one he had placed there on a Tuesday evening, in the kitchen, while I was cooking dinner.
The one I had called my mother about, crying, while she said how happy she was for me.
I looked at her now.
"You were happy for me," I said.
"I remember exactly what you said."
She didn't look away.
But she didn't answer either.
And then my phone buzzed in my pocket.
A message from a number I didn't recognize.
*Juliet.
There's something about that venue you need to know before June 7.
Please don't ignore this.*
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What Juliet discovered next made everything worse than she ever imagined.
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Click the link below to read the full story — and find out who sent that message.
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