Chapter 429
Chapter 429:
Her heart gave a violent, disorienting lurch. She stared for a half-second longer to be absolutely certain — and then she moved, following them through the thinning crowd to find out the truth for herself.
Elyse pushed through the door and scanned the street.
Cars moving. A few people on the pavement. No sign of either woman.
They were already gone.
She stood there, her brow furrowed, replaying what she had seen. There was no possibility she had been mistaken. She knew Kristine’s silhouette, her posture, the particular way she carried herself — it was unmistakable.
But Kristine was dead. Wasn’t she?
The question sat in her chest like something lodged wrong.
Elyse turned and walked back toward the main hall, thinking. After a moment, she decided to call Colton — not to tell him anything, but to feel out how much he knew. If he was still in the dark about Kristine being alive, she still had room to manage the situation herself.
She moved toward a quieter corner of the corridor, phone already in her hand.
𝖱𝖾а𝖽 𝗳r𝘰m y𝗈u𝘳 𝗉𝗵on𝖾 𝗼n
She was almost there when a pair of anxious voices drifted toward her from behind a wall.
“What are we supposed to do? I just went upstairs and the antler on the deer head is broken. It was perfectly fine when we brought it from Evira p>
“How did none of us notice? Did it happen during transit p>
“I have no idea. These pieces are supposed to be shipped out today. If the organizers find out, we’re finished p>
Elyse stopped walking.
A small smile began to form at the corner of her mouth.
She had stolen Kristine’s place at this event, and back home, people despised her for it. But here, no one knew the truth. Here, she was celebrated — invited, applauded, surrounded by people who had no reason to question her credentials.
She had grown up with nothing. An orphan with no family, no name, no safety net. If Patsy hadn’t been a match for her seven years ago, she would still be struggling to afford a decent meal.
Marrying Colton had once seemed like an impossible fantasy. But Patsy’s final words had cracked open a door she thought was sealed forever.
She had tried to leverage Patsy’s dying wish — the illness, the sentiment, the emotional weight of a dead woman’s last request — to push Colton toward marriage. It hadn’t worked. He had been on the verge of choosing Kristine instead.
Then, with no warning and no explanation, everything flipped. Colton announced their engagement publicly, even posted about it. The image he used was downloaded from somewhere online, but it didn’t matter — the world saw it, and she was his future wife.
She had believed, finally, that the hard part was behind her.
Then Kristine died, and Colton went completely silent on the subject of marriage. No dates, no discussions, no acknowledgment that any plans had ever existed. People who knew him had always said he was impossible to predict. She had thought they were wrong. She now understood they had been entirely right.