The officiant glanced up, uncertainty flickering across her face.
‘Maddy?’ she prompted gently.
No response.
Adam coughed. ‘Mads.’ He laughed. ‘Did you hear the question?’ But he didn’t look amused. He knew what was happening.
This was it. This was the moment when everything tipped one way or the other.
Hope flared in Eva.Please.
Maddy’s lips parted. And then…
‘I can’t.’
The words were quiet, but they cut through the room like a razor.
Eva didn’t breathe. For a moment, she wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t imagined what she wanted to hear.
But it had been said. And it was out there.
The room hadn’t reacted yet. The meaning was still catching up. But Eva felt it immediately. Something cracking open.
Everything had changed.
Forty-Seven
Maddy had said it.
She had said it out loud, in front of everyone. To Adam’s face. ‘I can’t.’
Panic hit. Then fear. Then amazement. She’d done it. She had actuallydoneit.
Somehow, despite everything—despite the expectations, the planning, the weight of the room and the day and the man standing beside her—she had said the one thing she hadn’t thought she was incapable of saying.
It felt enormous and catastrophic. It feltright.
But now came the part where she had to live with it. Her life, as it had been ten seconds ago, was gone.
Adam looked like he’d been struck. ‘What?’ he said finally.
Maddy swallowed, her throat tight. ‘I—’
Nothing came out. Because whatcouldshe say? Sorry felt too small. The truth felt too large.
The murmuring started up. The people frozen in shock were melting. Maddy felt it pressing in. This was the moment she became the villain of the story.
Then, without meaning to, she looked at Eva.
Eva was still there, exactly where she’d been, but something had shifted in her expression. Shock, yes. Something like disbelief. But underneath that?
Relief.
And in that brief, silent exchange, something passed between them.
You did it.
I know.
