Part 2: Ten Minutes
I entered the reading room in my silk robe. Ashley, Curt, Mom, and Dad followed. Wesley stayed outside but gave me his phone with the original timestamped email open.
Curt was the only person who looked confused.
I placed their old wedding invitation on the table, set the folder facedown beside it, and started a timer.
“Ashley, tell your husband the complete truth in your own words. Otherwise, I turn these pages over.”
She laughed too loudly.
“This is insane. Kathy has always been jealous. Her dress was ruined, so now she is staging an ambush.”
Curt looked at her.
“Then turn the pages over yourself.”
Ashley did not move.
The timer continued. She begged Mom to help. Mom tried to soften the truth.
“She was in a bad emotional place back then. It wasn’t serious.”
The words back then changed Curt’s expression. Everyone knew something except him.
Dad tried to stop the conversation, but Curt asked quietly, “What are we not discussing?”
Ashley lunged for the folder. I placed my hand over it.
“Removing the evidence was never part of the offer.”
She broke.
“It was nine years ago. It meant nothing.”
Curt stared at their wedding invitation.
“We were engaged,” he said. “Haley was three.”
When he asked who the man was, Ashley glanced toward the hallway, where Wesley was greeting guests. Curt understood.
“That is why you changed the ceremony, canceled appointments, and ruined the dress,” he said. “This whole day was about hiding it.”
He asked how long I had known.
“Three weeks. It was not mine to detonate. If they had left my wedding alone, I would never have opened this bag.”
Curt looked at the folder but chose not to read it.
Ashley fell to her knees, begging him to listen. When he stepped away, she turned to me.
“Please, Kathy. Think about Haley.”
“You should have thought about Haley before using her to destroy my dress.”
Mom cried and begged me to keep everything inside the family.
“You buried it there for nine years,” I said. “Look what grew from it.”
Curt apologized for my dress and walked out. Ashley ran after him.
Thirty minutes after the punch was poured, the folder remained unopened.
I returned it to my bag and faced my parents.
“Now I get married. You may stay or drive home.”
Outside the room, Meredith waited with my gown. She had removed the ruined tulle layer and cleaned the ivory sheath beneath it.
Grandma’s lace had survived.
