Chapter 2: The Groom Who Knew
Juliette's groom hadn't moved.
He stood at the altar with his hands at his sides, staring at me like a man watching a building collapse.
Then he said something that changed everything.
"I knew she wasn't de@d."
The room turned toward him.
Juliette's face went from white to gray.
"Elliot," she said.
"Don't."
But Elliot was already stepping away from the altar.
"I found the hospital records eight months ago," he said.
"I confronted you.
You told me it was a mistake.
That the records were wrong."
"Elliot, stop talking—"
"You showed me a second death certificate." His voice broke.
"You told me the first one was a clerical error."
Marcus reached into the briefcase without a word.
He placed a document on the table.
Then another.
Two death certificates.
Both bearing my name.
Both forged.
Both signed by the same hand.
My father made a sound I had never heard from him before.
Juliette grabbed her bouquet like it was the only solid thing left in the room.
"This is not what it looks like," she said.
I looked at her calmly.
"Then tell me what it looks like, Juliette."
She said nothing.
But behind her, near the ballroom entrance, a woman in a gray coat had been watching since the moment I walked in.
I recognized her.
She was the one who had pulled me from the fire.
And she was holding something I had never expected to see again.
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May you like
What she was carrying exposed the one secret Juliette had buried deeper than all the others.
Click the link below to read the full story — and find out what really happened the night of the Mercer fire.
