AVA’S POV
The heavy mahogany doors clicked shut, sealing the two of us inside a room that felt too large and too small all at once.
Outside those doors, the echo of the violins and the chatter of over five hundred people still lingered, but in here, the silence was deafening. I stood by the door, my fingers still curled around the brass handle, watching Lucas. He didn't look like a groom. He looked like a man finishing a tedious shift at a job he despised.
He walked to the dresser and began unfastening his cufflinks. The silver hit the marble top with a sharp clink like the sound of a clock ticking toward zero.
"The jewelry," Lucas said, his back still turned to me. "Take it off and put it in the safe. I don't want to hear about a missing necklace tomorrow morning because you were too
