Her gaze settled immediately on the children.

“You have three children?”

“I do.”

Beatrice stared at Adeline.

“Why didn’t anyone tell us?”

Adeline almost laughed.

“Because you stopped being my family four years ago.”

The Celebration Callum Had Planned

Callum glanced around and realized people were watching.

His expression hardened.

“Please don’t turn my wedding into one of your emotional performances.”

Adeline remained perfectly still.

“I didn’t come here to perform. You invited me.”

Lacey suddenly stepped forward.

“Callum, maybe we should speak privately.”

He turned toward her.

“Why?”

Lacey tightened her grip on her bouquet.

Adeline noticed Russell standing several feet behind them.

He would not look at the bride.

That told her enough.

Callum turned back toward Adeline.

“Whatever you’re carrying in that folder, put it away.”

Graham stepped slightly closer to his wife.

He didn’t raise his voice.

“Don’t speak to her like that.”

Callum’s jaw tightened.

“This has nothing to do with you.”

Graham looked at Theo and the twins before answering.

“She’s my wife. It has everything to do with me.”

The surrounding conversations stopped.

Adeline opened the folder.

She removed the first report.

“For years, people in this room were told that I was the reason Callum and I couldn’t have children.”

Beatrice crossed her arms.

“This is inappropriate.”

Adeline looked directly at her.

“Discussing my private life at your dinner table was inappropriate too.”

Then she placed the report on a nearby table.

“Callum received this years before our divorce. It showed that the problem was never mine.”

Whispers moved through the guests.

Callum’s face tightened.

“Those records are private.”

Adeline’s voice remained steady.

“So were mine.”

Beatrice looked at her son.

“Callum, what is she talking about?”

He said nothing.

Adeline removed the payment records.

“These show money transferred to someone connected to the clinic around the same time information in my files was changed.”

Beatrice stared at Callum.

“Tell me she’s lying.”

He still didn’t answer.

And his silence said more than any confession could have.

Then the Bride Began to Tremble

Adeline could have stopped there.

Perhaps she should have.

But Lacey had known why Adeline was being invited.

She had allowed Callum to turn the wedding invitation into one final attempt at humiliation.

Adeline removed another document.

Lacey immediately whispered,

“Please don’t.”

Callum looked at her.

“Don’t what?”

Lacey’s eyes filled with panic.

Adeline placed the laboratory request on the table.

“This document isn’t about me.”

Callum picked it up.

He read the first page.

Then the second.

His expression slowly changed.

“Lacey, why did you request a prenatal comparison?”

She didn’t answer.

Callum looked toward Russell.

“Why is Russell connected to this?”

Russell stepped forward.

“Callum, we need to talk somewhere private.”

Callum stared at his closest friend.

“Answer me here.”

Lacey lowered her bouquet.

“I was going to tell you.”

Callum looked at her stomach.

His voice became quieter.

“Is the baby mine?”

Lacey’s silence gave him the answer.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

“You were so obsessed with showing everyone that you had won after your divorce that you stopped seeing the people standing beside you.”

Callum shook his head.

“You lied to me.”

Lacey looked at Adeline.

Then back at him.

“And you built your entire first marriage on a lie.”

The room fell silent again.

The wedding Callum had designed to prove that his life was perfect was coming apart before the ceremony had even begun.

He Turned His Attention to the Children

Callum suddenly looked toward Theo, Willa, and June.

His humiliation shifted into suspicion.

“How old are they?”

Adeline immediately understood.

“That’s none of your concern.”

“How old are they, Adeline?”

Graham stepped between Callum and the children.

“That’s enough.”

Beatrice studied June’s face.

“She has familiar eyes.”

Adeline moved closer to her daughter.

“Do not involve my children in this.”

Callum gave a bitter laugh.

“How do I know they’re not mine?”

Adeline stared at him.

For years, he had treated her inability to give him children as evidence that she had failed.

Now, the moment his own world collapsed, he was trying to claim the very family he once said she could never have.