34
SELENA
I found it in my suitcase. The old diary. The one I'd kept hidden for years. I don't know why I brought it to the wedding. Maybe some part of me wanted to remind myself how far I'd come.
I handed it to Lucien.
"What's this?"
"My past." I sat beside him on the bed. "Everything I never told you. About Kai. About us. About all of it."
He looked at me, those dark eyes searching. "Are you sure?"
"I spent years chasing men who were never capable of catching me. I had to kill that version of me before it killed me. And I realized that you will find love when you stop bleeding on people who won't even give you a bandage."
I placed the diary in his hands.
"You gave me a bandage for a wound you didn't cause. You gave me everything. So yes. I'm sure."
He opened it. Started reading. I watched his face, my fingers twisting in the hem of my dress. For a second I almost took it back. Almost told him to stop.
Page one. How we met. The party where he saved me. He smiled softly.
Page five. The friendship years. Balcony nights. Him dating others. His jaw tightened.
Page ten. The Amy party. First major betrayal. "It didn't mean anything." His knuckles went white.
Page fifteen. The proposal. Why I said yes. The trap. He set the diary down. Picked it up again.
Page twenty. Living together. The slow fade. His distance. My loneliness.
Page twenty-five. Jade's arrival
Page thirty. The hike. Yellow dress. "You look like a pineapple." "I wish you were as chilled as Jade."
Page thirty-five. The cabin. The phone call. Me listening. His voice saying Jade.
Page forty. Coming home with her. No apology. No explanation. Just... together.
Page forty-five. The months alone. The darkness. The emptiness.
He closed the diary. His whole body was shaking.
"Where is he?"
"Lucien—"
"Where. Is. He."
"The garden. By the fountain. But please—"
He was already at the door. I ran after him.
I reached the garden just as Lucien grabbed Kai by the collar. His fist was already in motion. The first punch landed before anyone could scream.
Kai's head snapped back. Blood sprayed from his nose. Someone dropped a glass. The music stopped. The whole garden went silent except for the sound of Lucien's fists.
"Movie theaters, Kai? Alone on her birthday?"
Another punch. The crack of bone.
"Vanilla? You called her vanilla?"
Another. Kai stumbled.
"The Uber. Twenty-three minutes. In the cold. While you drove away."
Another. Blood dripped down Kai's chin.
"Her job. You gave her job to Jade."
Another. Kai's nose cracked.
"The cabin. The phone call. Making her listen."
Another. Kai fell to his knees.
Lucien stood over him, chest heaving, fists still clenched. His knuckles were split. Blood dripped from his hand.
Then he turned. His eyes found Jade. She was frozen. Pale. Hands over her mouth. He walked toward her, slow and deliberate.
"And you."
"Lucien—"
"YOU." His voice was a roar. "You sat in that room with me. You drew on my whiteboard. You laughed at my plan. And you knew. You knew what he did to her."
"I didn't—"
"You knew he made her listen to that phone call. You knew he came home with you and gave her nothing. You knew about the birthday. The Uber. The job. All of it."
Jade was sobbing now. "I was trying to help—"
"Help? HELP?" He laughed, bitter and hollow. "You don't get to help. You don't get to redeem yourself. You don't get to sit in rooms and plan futures after what you did to her."
"Lucien, please—"
"You are just as guilty as he is. Both of you. You destroyed her. And you sat there and let me believe he could be worthy of her."
"Lucien!"
My voice. Terrified.
He turned. I was crying. Shaking. "Please. Please stop. You're scaring me."
Something in his face shifted. The rage didn't disappear, but something else broke through. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. Like he finally understood why I stopped celebrating my birthday. Why I stopped wearing yellow. Why I never talked about the past. And I realized — he didn't just read my diary. He felt it.
Then Mum stepped forward, right between him and Jade. She placed a hand on his chest.
"That's enough, son."
He was breathing hard. Fists still clenched. She looked at him, not with fear but with love. "You've made your point. Now come back to us."
He looked at her. Then at me. The rage drained from his face. He nodded. Just once. Mum took his arm and led him away.
Sabrina stepped forward and looked down at Kai, still on the ground, blood dripping from his face. Her hands were shaking. Her eyes were wet. She looked broken in a way I had never seen before.
"You didn't tell him the truth," she said, her voice cracking with despair. "You sat in that room and you shook his hand and you let him believe you had told him everything. But you didn't. You've been lying to all of us, Kai. To Lucien. To me. To everyone who was trying to help fix what you broke."
Kai groaned but didn't answer. He couldn't even look at her.
Sabrina turned to me then. Her face crumpled. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Selena. I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to—"
Mum appeared behind her and gently pulled her away. "Not now," she said softly. "Not like this."
Sabrina let herself be led, still crying, still whispering "I'm sorry" over and over as she disappeared into the crowd.
I stood there, frozen. My sister. My own sister, apologizing for something I didn't understand. Kai on the ground. Jade sobbing. Lucien gone. Mum pulling everyone away like she was cleaning up a disaster she hadn't caused.
I looked at Kai. Then at Jade. Then at the place where Sabrina had been standing.
"What is happening?" I whispered.
No one answered. No one would meet my eyes.
Mum appeared beside me and took my arm. "Come, baby. Let's go inside."
"I don't understand what's happening."
"I know." Her voice was gentle. "We'll figure it out. But not here."
She led me away. I looked back once. Kai on the ground, alone. Jade crying, alone. And me, lost. Completely, utterly lost.
For the first time, I realized everyone knew the truth about my life except me.