Vanessa hadn’t changed him.
She simply revealed who he already was becoming.
After Richard sat down, Vanessa stood gracefully and reached for the microphone.
“Oh, I absolutely have to say something,” she purred. “When I first met Daniel, I loved his humble background. It made him so appreciative.”
Her friends giggled immediately.
“Of course,” she continued while looking directly at me, “some parts of the background are harder to polish.”
The ballroom sharpened into silence.
My father pushed his chair backward.
I touched his wrist gently. “Don’t.”
He looked at me. “Lena—”
“Not yet.”
Vanessa blinked, visibly irritated that I hadn’t broken.
Then Patrice stood, drunk enough to stop pretending. “Let’s be honest. We paid for this entire engagement because Daniel’s family couldn’t even afford napkin rings.”
Daniel turned red instantly—but not from shame.
From panic.
I placed my untouched champagne glass onto the table.
That was the first lie of the evening.
Vanessa’s family hadn’t paid for anything. Their payment card had failed twice. Daniel eventually covered the deposit himself after begging our father for money, claiming there had been “unexpected wedding emergencies.”
