I told her.
Quietly.
Without making a scene.
I told her Adrian had been engaged to me three months earlier.
I told her about the accident.
The closed casket.
The funeral I attended.
Sarah stared at me.
“That’s impossible.”
“I wish it were.”
She turned toward Colleen.
“Is she lying?”
Colleen said nothing.
Sarah’s face changed immediately.
“Ms. Colleen?”
Still nothing.
Then Adrian appeared at the far end of the hallway.
He stopped when he saw me.
For the first time that day, he looked terrified.
“Meredith.”
I turned toward him.
“You finally remembered my name.”
Sarah stepped forward. “Please tell me she’s lying.”
Adrian looked toward his mother.
Then Julian.
Nobody rescued him.
“Sarah, I can explain.”
She slapped him.
The sound echoed through the hallway, and guests inside began standing.
Adrian touched his cheek.
“Sarah.”
“You told me that she knew about everything.”
I froze.
Adrian looked sharply at her.
Sarah began crying.
“You said Meredith knew you wanted out. You said the funeral was some legal mess your family couldn’t stop.”
I stared at him.
He had lied to her too.
Different lie. Same cowardice.
“I didn’t know anything,” I told her.
Sarah covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Meredith.”
“So am I.”
Adrian moved toward me.
“Meredith, please listen.”
“No.”
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
I almost laughed.
“You let me bury you.”
His face twisted.
“I just didn’t know how to end things.”
“So you died?”
He had no answer.
I removed my florist badge and looked at him.
“You were right about one thing.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Something went wrong today.”
Then I walked away.
I didn’t destroy the flowers.
I didn’t make a speech.
Neither mattered anymore.
Sarah left through the front doors with her father.
Guests whispered.
Julian went into the ceremony room to explain what he could.
Colleen sank against the hallway wall and cried.
Adrian stood alone in the suit he had bought for our wedding.
For months, I believed losing him was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.
Walking out of that venue, I finally understood the truth.
I hadn’t lost the man I was supposed to marry.
I had discovered who he really was before I married him.
There was a difference.
And for the first time since the funeral, I no longer felt like a grieving fiancée.
I felt like Meredith again.
