CHAPTER 3: The Slip Everyone Saw

Julian reached for the envelope tucked beneath Evelyn's arm.
He did it quickly, as if speed could make disrespect look accidental.
Evelyn moved back only one step.
Julian moved two.
His heel met the wet stone at the edge of the pool, polished earlier until it shone like glass. His arms opened in a frantic, undignified gesture. For half a second, the groom seemed suspended between wealth and consequence.
Then he fell backward into the blue water.
The splash swallowed the terrace.
No one screamed.
That was what made it worse.
A hundred guests watched the groom rise from the pool in his soaked tuxedo, hair plastered to his forehead, mouth open with shock.
Evelyn did not laugh.
She stood where she had been standing, untouched, her dress dry, her expression still enough to frighten the people who knew her least.
A few guests would later claim they saw Evelyn shove him. The security footage would correct them before the rumor could become useful.
She had not touched him. That was the cruelest truth for Julian: his fall belonged entirely to him.
Julian wiped water from his eyes and looked up at her.
For the first time all night, he understood he was below her.