Chapter 9: Why Didn’t She Attend

Adrian found her in the sitting room the next morning, curtains still drawn against the daylight.

"We need to talk about today," he said. "My father and Richard both think we should make a short appearance outside. Nothing long. Just enough to look calm, married, and completely unbothered by any of this."

Claire's stomach dropped. "In front of the reporters."

"In front of everyone. If we hide, it looks like we're hiding something. If we show up together, relaxed, it kills some of the speculation before it grows."

"Adrian, I can't do that. Not up close."

"I'll be right beside you the whole time."

"That doesn't fix the problem." Her voice shook, and this time she couldn't hold it steady. "You don't understand what you're actually asking me to do."

She sat down heavily, her hands pressed against her eyes.

"I don't know anything about her life," Claire said, her voice breaking. "Not really. When we were ten, someone tried to kidnap us both. I got Sophia free, but I was shot doing it. I almost died." Tears slipped down her face now, and she didn't try to stop them. "My parents got so afraid of losing me that once I recovered, they sent me to live with my grandmother instead, and they never really checked up on me again. Not properly. Not for sixteen years."

Adrian sat down across from her, quiet, watching.

"I only came back now because of the wedding," Claire went on, wiping at her face with the back of her hand, tears still rolling down. "Not because of my parents. I didn't come back for them. Sophia asked me herself, called me, told me she wanted her sister there. That was the only reason I got on a plane." Her voice cracked further. "And now she's the one who's missing, and I'm standing here pretending to be her at her own wedding, all because of whatever business deal my father cares more about than either of us. She's the reason I came home, and I can't even find her."

She pressed the heel of her hand against her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. "I don't know her friends. I don't know what happened at family dinners I wasn't at, or what jokes she and my mother share. I'm a stranger to this family, Adrian. Most people in that crowd out there probably don't even know I exist. I'm not a person to them. I'm barely a rumor."

"I didn't know it went that far back," Adrian said, and for once his voice had no careful distance in it at all. "I didn't know any of this."

"Now you do."

He was quiet for a moment, something working behind his eyes.

"I still think we need to go out there," he said finally, gently but without backing down. "Not because I don't understand what it's costing you. Because the alternative is worse. If we hide today, it confirms every suspicion already circling. I'll be right beside you. If anything goes wrong, I'll handle it."

Claire wiped her face again and nodded slowly, some of the panic settling into something closer to grim resolve.

"Fine," she said. "Let's get it over with."

They stepped out onto the front steps an hour later, staff having cleared a small, controlled space near the gate. Reporters surged forward the moment the door opened, a wall of raised phones and shouted questions.

"Mrs. Knight, can you confirm reports connecting you to Preston Vale."

"Any comment on your husband's business rival."

Adrian raised a hand, calm and practiced. "We have no comment on ongoing business matters. We're simply grateful for the well wishes on our marriage."

Claire smiled the way she'd practiced in the mirror, standing close to Adrian's side, his hand steady at her back. It was going well. Almost over.

Then, from the back of the crowd, one more voice called out, cutting through the others.

"Mrs. Knight! One last question." A reporter held her phone up higher, pushing forward. "Your twin sister, Claire, she's been out of the public eye for years, hasn't she? Why didn't she attend the wedding at all?"

Claire's whole body went cold.

Every camera in the crowd seemed to turn toward her at once, waiting for an answer she had absolutely no idea how to give.