I reached the altar and stood across from the performance, and I gave my own performance right back, and somewhere behind my calm face the machinery I had built was already turning toward the moment it would all come down.

“You look breathtaking,” he whispered as I reached him.

“Thank you,” I said.

Chapter 22 — Page Eighteen

After the vows, before the reception, Percival steered me into a private suite off the ballroom — Ottavia there, Dunstan, two of the family’s attorneys, and a thick leather binder on the table.

“Just this last bit of administration,” Percival said, smooth.