Marcus removed a second document from the folder.
It was a copy of the event contract for Tyler’s wedding.
My father had signed that as owner too.
He had accepted deposits from vendors, authorized alcohol service, and promised exclusive use of the estate.
He had also charged Tyler and Leah nothing, while directing the trust’s accounts to cover catering, flowers, rentals, and security.
The total exceeded one hundred and forty thousand dollars.
Leah’s father stepped away from my father as if the distance itself mattered.
“You told me your family owned the venue,” he said.
“We do,” Tyler answered.
Marcus tapped the deed.
“No.
Ava does, through the trust.
And the trust did not authorize these expenses.”
Tyler’s face flushed.
“She can authorize them now.”
Everyone looked at me again.
I glanced through the open ballroom doors.
Hundreds of white roses covered the terrace.
Candles waited on long tables.
The cake stood beneath a crystal chandelier.
Staff members clustered near the kitchen, uncertain whether they would be paid for work they had already done.
Leah had not abandoned me at a gas station.
Neither had her parents, the servers, the musicians, or the guests who had traveled to be there.
I was not interested in becoming my father.
“The vendors will be paid,” I said.
“The staff will finish the event if Leah wants them to.
No one who worked in good faith will lose money.”
Relief crossed several faces.
Tyler mistook compassion for surrender.
“There,” he said, turning toward Leah.
“It’s settled.
We can get married.”
Leah kept looking at him.
“Did you laugh when she was left there?”
He rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“I was a kid.”
“Did you tell the police you were asleep?”
“My dad told me what to say.”
My father shouted his name, but the admission was already hanging in the room.
Leah’s eyes filled with tears.
She did not look fragile.
She looked as though something inside her had become painfully clear.
“Last month you told me your sister destroyed your family because she ran away,” she said.
“You said your parents searched for her for years.”
