CHAPTER TWELVE
MELINDA
I woke to sunlight streaming through the windows, my body heavy with exhaustion despite sleeping for what felt like hours. The gala replayed in my mind on an endless loop, every conversation I'd fumbled in the wedding through coming back to haunt me. Isabella's questions about the wedding dress. Verena's knowing smile. Uncle Roberto asking about my sister, the one he thought existed somewhere else, not realizing I was that sister.
How many mistakes had I made? How many people had noticed the cracks in my performance?
I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to push away the memories, but they clung to me like smoke. Every smile I'd forced felt wrong in retrospect. Every lie I'd told seemed obvious now. I was terrible at this, absolutely terrible, yet somehow I
