Vanessa’s voice shook so badly I had to press my phone harder to my ear to make out the words. “He signed things this morning,” she whispered. “Before the ceremony.
Mom was there. They said it was just… routine.”
Routine. That word again—the family favorite.
The one they used when they didn’t want questions. “What things?” I asked. There was a pause, the kind that tells you someone is choosing between denial and survival.
“Power of attorney,” she said. “And a prenup addendum. They said it protected me.
They said it was standard with his family.”
I closed my eyes. The café smelled like burnt espresso and rain-damp wool. A couple at the next table laughed over pastries.
Somewhere nearby, a busker played an accordion like joy was uncomplicated. “Vanessa,” I said carefully, “did you read them?”
She let out a sound that wasn’t quite a sob. “Mom said I didn’t need to.
She said you would’ve made it weird.”
There it was. The real reason I wasn’t invited. Not because I’m awkward.
Not because I embarrass people. Because I read. Because I ask.
Because I don’t confuse polish with safety. My phone buzzed again—my mother this time, relentless. Come home now.
You’re being selfish. This is a family emergency. I watched the cheapest return flight disappear from the screen and felt something settle in me—not panic, not guilt.
Clarity. “I can’t come home today,” I told Vanessa. “But you need to stop listening to Mom and start listening to your instincts.
Where are you right now?”
“In the bridal suite,” she whispered. “They told me to stay put.”
“Good,” I said. “Stay there.
And don’t sign anything else.”
I hung up and stood, legs shaky but steady enough. I walked back into the rain and called the one person my mother never liked because she couldn’t charm him: my uncle Aaron—my dad’s younger brother, the one who left town early and built a life that didn’t revolve around approval. He answered on the second ring.
“Kayla?” he said. “I was wondering when you’d call.”
That stopped me cold. “I saw the video,” he continued.
“And I saw the paperwork. Your mom asked me to witness something this morning. I said no.”
My heart thudded.
“You saw it?”
“I read it,” he said. “Wesley’s family is clean on the surface and sharp underneath. That addendum gives him control if Vanessa’s deemed ‘emotionally unstable.’ Guess who insisted on that language.”
I didn’t need him to say her name.
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