Chapter 4 - THE WEDDING INVITATIONAdrian's invitation arrived by phone.
Not a letter.
Not a message.
A call.
He wanted me to hear the superiority in his voice.
He wanted me to imagine Celeste standing beside him.
Pregnant.
Beautiful.
Victorious.
He wanted me to feel small.
Instead, I said:
“I will come.”
He did not know what to do with that answer.
Because Adrian had always understood my tears.
He had never understood my silence.
I told Nora.
She stared at me.
“You gave birth twelve hours ago.”
“The wedding is in three weeks.”
“You have a failing heart.”
“I know.”
“You may need a transplant.”
“I know.”
“Mia, this is insane.”
“No.”
I looked at Grace.
“This is unfinished.”
Nora opened the folder.
The paternity report was there.
The banking records were there.
The messages from Evelyn were there.
And one final piece of evidence.
An email from Celeste.
In it, she wrote:
Once Mia is gone, Adrian will finally understand what a real family looks like.
The message had been sent eight months earlier.
The same week Adrian filed for divorce.
The same week Evelyn told me to stop contacting her son.
I read it again.
Then closed the folder.
“I don't want to destroy them.”
Nora raised an eyebrow.
“You have a strange way of showing it.”
“I want to stop them from destroying Grace.”
That was the truth.
At least, it was the truth I could admit.
May you like
The other truth was harder.
Some part of me still wanted to know whether Adrian would recognize his own child.
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