Married to My Enemy’s Father

Already Over

Elena did not ask the coordinator another question.

She thanked her, adjusted the donor-wall sequence, and finished the photo block because people were already moving into place and none of them had anything to do with Dominic’s lies.

By the time Elena stepped away from the donor wall, Dominic was no longer in the same cluster of guests.

Sabrina was.

She stood with one of the Cole producers near a narrow cocktail table, checking the revised media schedule on a phone. She looked up when Elena approached.

For half a second, neither woman spoke.

The coordinator from earlier arrived between them with a tablet.

“Perfect. I have both of you.” She looked at Sabrina. “For the seven-fifteen walk-through, are we still expecting Mr. Vale with you, or should I move the Cole segment ahead without him?”

A few hours ago, Elena would have answered automatically. Dominic will be there. Give him five minutes. Move this, hold that, let me call him.

She looked at the coordinator instead.

“I can confirm my part of the schedule,” Elena said. “You’ll need Dominic to confirm his.”

The coordinator’s attention shifted to Sabrina.

Sabrina frowned slightly. “He said he’d still do it with me.”

“Then we’ll keep the slot,” the coordinator said.

She tapped the screen, thanked them both, and moved off toward the ballroom doors.

Sabrina watched her go.

“I thought that was settled,” she said.

Elena turned toward her. “What was?”

Sabrina hesitated.

There was no hostility in her face now. If anything, she looked annoyed at Dominic, which was more useful.

“The schedule,” Sabrina said. “Dominic said it would be simpler once things were public.”

Elena waited.

Sabrina’s eyes narrowed a little. “Once your separation was public.”

Nothing around them changed. Glassware still clicked behind the bar. The quartet had moved into something faster. A photographer near the ballroom doors asked an assistant to shift a light stand six inches to the left.

Elena heard every word anyway.

“Our separation,” she repeated.

Sabrina went still.

“Elena.”

“When did Dominic tell you we were separated?”

Sabrina looked toward the ballroom entrance, perhaps checking whether Dominic was close enough to hear them. He was not.

She shifted the phone in her hand. “A little over three weeks ago. I don’t know the exact day.”

Elena’s mind supplied the calendar before she wanted it to.

Three weeks ago, Dominic had sat beside her at her parents’ house while Margaret Marlowe pretended not to care that the caterer had changed the tasting menu again. Dominic had complained about the drive, eaten two desserts, and spent twenty minutes arguing with Elena about whether they needed six dinner options for a wedding with plated service.

He had won the argument.

Four days later, he had approved the revised contract.

Elena looked at Sabrina. “He told you it was already over by then?”

Sabrina nodded. “He said you were both waiting for the right time to announce it.”

The words came more carefully now.

Sabrina was beginning to understand that she was not filling Elena in on an unpleasant fact.

She was delivering news.

Elena held her gaze. “We approved the revised catering contract two weeks and three days ago. Dominic chose the menu himself.”

Sabrina’s chin lifted slightly. “He told me the wedding planning was family pressure. That you both agreed it was easier to finish the immediate obligations before making anything public.”

The explanation covered the public obligations, the ring still on Elena’s hand, and the wedding planning Dominic had continued. It also required Elena to have agreed to a breakup no one had ever mentioned to her.

Elena looked down at the engagement ring on her hand, then back at Sabrina.

“You said three weeks ago. Dominic approved the revised catering contract after that. He sat with me, chose the final menu himself, and signed the revision in his own name.”

Sabrina glanced at her phone, then toward the ballroom.

“He told me it had already ended before that.”

“He never told me that.”

Sabrina’s attention snapped back to Elena.

Elena continued. “He never told me we were separated. He never told me the engagement was over. We were still planning the wedding during the period you’re talking about.”

A server passed between them with a tray of empty glasses. Both women shifted aside without looking away from each other.

Sabrina’s grip loosened on her phone.

“He told me you had both accepted that it was over,” she said quietly.

Elena followed Sabrina’s glance across the ballroom. Dominic had reappeared near the ribbon display, speaking to a donor and smiling as if the evening had returned to normal.

“He never said that to me.”

Sabrina looked at Elena’s ring again.

For the first time, her attention stayed there instead of sliding away.

“At any point, even privately, did he tell you he considered you separated?” Sabrina asked.

“No. There was no breakup conversation, no private agreement, and no warning that he had begun describing the relationship to someone else as finished.”

Sabrina drew in a breath and looked back toward Dominic.

“He told me the decision had been mutual.”

Elena gave a small nod. “Then he lied to you too.”

The words were harsher than anything she had said so far, but they were also the simplest thing in the conversation.

Sabrina looked down at the phone in her hand.

“I should have asked more questions.”

Elena considered that. “Maybe. I’m not going to decide for you what you should have known. Whatever he told you, he never told me we were over.”

A voice from the Cole team called Sabrina’s name. She raised one hand without turning around.

The producer crossed halfway toward them anyway.

“We need the final walk-through order in three minutes,” he said. His attention moved from Sabrina to Elena, then back. “Do you need me to hold the segment?”

Sabrina opened her mouth.

Elena answered only for herself. “My part of the schedule is unchanged.”

The producer looked to Sabrina.

“Keep ours for now,” Sabrina said. “I need to confirm Dominic’s participation directly.”

The producer nodded and went back toward the media station.

That small change carried more weight than another accusation would have. Sabrina was no longer treating Dominic’s assurances as enough to organize the event around.

She opened her messages and scrolled.

Elena did not lean closer.

After several seconds Sabrina said Dominic had written that the announcement would happen after the opening and blamed family timing for the delay.

Elena asked, “Does he say anywhere that I agreed to that timing?”

Sabrina searched farther back in the thread, then shook her head. “No. He says you understood.”

Elena waited while Sabrina looked through the messages once more.

“I never saw anything from you confirming it,” Sabrina said.

That was different from an apology. More useful, too.

Elena said, “Before tonight, tell me what you actually heard or saw from me about a separation.”

Sabrina’s answer came after a pause. “Nothing. No message. No conversation. I never saw the two of you end it.”

Sabrina locked her phone.

The facts between them were finally narrower than Dominic’s explanation.

He had told Sabrina the engagement was finished.

Sabrina had believed him.

Elena had never been part of that agreement.

“What are you going to do?” Sabrina asked.

Elena looked past her toward the ballroom doors.

She wanted out of the room. She wanted ten quiet minutes without music, cameras, staff schedules, or Dominic deciding what version of the evening everyone else should receive.

What she did not want was an alliance built out of shock.

“I’m going to speak to him,” Elena said. “What you do with what you know is your decision.”

Sabrina looked at her for a moment.

“He told me you would be relieved once it was public.”

Elena’s mouth tightened. “He seems to have made several decisions on my behalf.”

Sabrina looked away.

Embarrassment replaced the defensiveness that had been there earlier.

Elena left it with her.

“I’m sorry,” Sabrina said.

Elena considered the words.

“I believe you’re sorry now.”

Sabrina flinched, but she nodded.

It was not forgiveness. Sabrina had not asked for it, and Elena did not have enough information to give it.

The producer called Sabrina’s name again, this time from beside the media station.

Sabrina turned halfway, then stopped.

“I’m going to ask him what he told you,” she said.

“That is between you and him.”

Sabrina looked toward Dominic.

He was already watching them.

The donor beside him was still speaking, but Dominic’s attention had left the conversation entirely.

Sabrina saw it too.

She stepped away toward the Cole team, no longer looking like someone waiting for Dominic to explain the evening for her.

Elena turned toward the ballroom doors.

Dominic moved first.

He handed his drink to a passing server without looking, ended his conversation with the donor in the middle of a sentence, and crossed the room toward her with the speed of a man who had just realized two people were comparing the versions he had given them.

Elena saw him coming.

So did Sabrina.

Neither woman moved to make it easier for him.