Chapter 2 - The Replacement
Victoria claimed Lily had misunderstood.
Ethan did not move.
“What exactly did you tell her?”
“I told her the ceremony required quiet.”
Lily looked over Ethan’s shoulder.
“You said my dress looked cheap.”
Several guests lowered their eyes.
The ivory dress had been altered by Rosa, the longtime Mercer housekeeper, because the designer gown Victoria ordered never arrived in Lily’s size.
Victoria called the handmade sash embarrassing.
She replaced Lily with the daughter of a major donor thirty minutes before the ceremony.
A richer child.
A better family name.
A dress that matched the photographs.
Ethan stared at his bride.
“You removed Lily because of her clothes?”
“Because this wedding represents both our families.”
“She is part of mine.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“She is your late sister’s child.”
The word late sounded less like grief and more like distance.
Lily’s mother, Sarah, had died eighteen months earlier. Ethan promised beside her hospital bed that Lily would always have a home with him.
Victoria had smiled when he told her.
She said she admired his loyalty.
Now, surrounded by wealthy guests, her real opinion surfaced.
“Lily attends public school,” Victoria said. “She doesn’t know how to behave at events like this.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
Ethan’s voice turned cold.
“She is six.”
“And this is a five-million-dollar wedding.”
There it was.
The price of the flowers mattered more than the child carrying them.
Then the wedding coordinator approached with a printed instruction sheet.
May you like
At the top was Victoria’s handwritten order:
Keep Lily out of all family photographs until after the vows.
