Chapter 330

[ 1,084 words ]

Katia’s POV

“Enough,” Jude said, his voice sharper now, an edge of real panic finally bleeding through the charm. “This is exactly what I told you would happen, Delia. The moment any of this came out, she’d twist it to make you the villain instead of looking at her own behavior p>

“My behavior,” I said, turning on him fully now, “is asking the man who has been sleeping in my parents’ good graces for months, accepting their gifts, kissing their cheeks, and calling himself family exactly how he came to know about a crime scene he had no business knowing about. That’s not twisting anything, Jude. That’s simply asking the question you’ve spent this entire dinner trying very hard not to answer p>

“I answered it,” he said. “I told you. Contacts p>

“Try again,” I said. “Because I don’t think you understand yet exactly how much trouble you’re actually in tonight p>

“Are you threatening me?” Jude said, straightening, trying to summon back whatever swagger he had walked in with hours ago.

“I’m informing you,” I said. “There’s a difference. A threat is something I might do later. This is simply telling you what’s already in motion. Obtaining confidential evidence connected to an active investigation, through a private contact with no legal authority to share it, is not a gray area, Jude. It’s a crime. And right now there are exactly two people in this room who could be charged for it p>

Delia made a small, broken sound.

“You wouldn’t,” she said.

“I haven’t decided yet,” I said, which was not entirely true, but I wanted her to sit with the uncertainty a moment longer before I told her anything else. “What I have decided is that I’m done letting either of you stand in my home pretending this was anything other than calculated p>

“It wasn’t calculated,” Delia said. “I was angry. I wanted you to suffer the way I felt like I was suffering. I didn’t think it through past that p>

“That’s the most honest thing you’ve said all night,” I said.

Martha had gone entirely silent, her hand pressed flat against her chest, watching her daughter unravel in real time with an expression that looked, for the first time all evening, genuinely shattered rather than merely inconvenienced.

Martha hadn’t moved in almost a full minute. Hand flat against her chest, eyes locked on Delia like she was watching a stranger wear her daughter’s face, the brightness she’d walked in with three hours ago gone completely now, replaced by something that looked a great deal closer to grief.

I let her have the minute. She’d earned it.

Then I turned away from Delia, because Delia had already given me everything she had left to give tonight, and looked at the man still standing near the bar cart with his hands raised slightly, like surrender might still buy him something.

“We’re not finished,” I said.

Jude’s eyes flicked to me, then away, then back, the easy charm he’d walked in wearing now sitting on him like a coat two sizes too small.

“Katia, I think everyone in this room has had enough for one evening p>

“I haven’t,” I said. “Not even close p>

“What more is there?” he said, and there was a thinness creeping into his voice now, the first real crack I’d heard in it all night. “You’ve humiliated your sister, exposed a scheme I had no part in planning, and now you want to keep going? For what p>

“For the part where you tell this room who Hailey Maddison is p>

The name landed in the middle of the room and did something I hadn’t expected. It didn’t confuse anyone. My mother’s head came up sharply. My father’s hand stilled on the bar cart. Even Delia, wrecked and tear-streaked by the doorway, went very still, like she recognized the shape of the name even if she didn’t know the woman behind it.

Jude’s face, on the other hand, went perfectly, carefully blank.

“I don’t know who that is,” he said.

“Try again p>

“I’m telling you the truth. I have never heard that name in my life p>

“Funny,” I said. “Because I have a marriage certificate that says you have. Registered in London. Bride: Hailey Maddison. Groom: Jude Wolfe. Filed three years ago. Never annulled. Never divorced. Hailey, now Hailey Wolfe p>

“That’s a lie p>

“Is it p>

“Yes.” His voice climbed now, the first genuine heat I’d heard from him all night. “I have never married anyone named Hailey Maddison. This is exactly what I’d expect from you tonight, after everything else, throwing one more accusation at the wall to see what sticks p>

I smiled at him. The kind of smile I save for the last lap, when I already know the race is mine and the only thing left to do is let the other driver figure that out for himself.

“Really,” I said.

“Yes. Really p>

“You knew about it the moment I said the name,” I said. “I watched your face. You didn’t ask who she is. You didn’t ask why I’m bringing up a stranger at your own dinner table. You went straight to denying a marriage nobody had even accused you of forgetting existed p>

“Because it’s an insane thing to accuse a man of,” Jude said. “What do you want me to do, panic? Apologize for a crime I didn’t commit p>

“I want you to explain,” my mother said, finding her voice at last, thin and shaking but clear enough to cut through him. “Jude. Is this true p>

“Of course it isn’t, Martha p>

“Then where’s the lie?” I said. “Show me. Tell this room you’ve never set foot in a registry office in London. Tell them you’ve never heard the name Hailey Maddison before tonight, and say it looking at me instead of at the floor p>

Jude lifted his chin and looked at me directly, and for one second I almost respected the nerve of it.

“I have never heard that name before tonight,” he said.

“You’re lying,” I said, “and you’re not even doing it well p>

“Prove it, then,” he said, something sharper and more desperate bleeding through now. “You keep talking about a certificate. Where is it? You’ve said the words ’marriage certificate’ three times tonight and produced exactly nothing. Maybe because there’s nothing to produce. Maybe this is exactly what it looks like, a woman who’s decided she’d rather be with Julian Windsor and needs a clean reason to throw her current husband out the door before anyone asks why p>

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.