Chapter 6 - Eleanor’s Shoulder
Eleanor’s strap had slipped only for a second.
But a second was enough to reopen Travis’s entire childhood.
The birthmark had lived in his memory like a private myth.
A dark, uneven circle near his mother’s shoulder.
He remembered it from an old photo hidden in a drawer he was not supposed to open.
He remembered asking about it.
He remembered the answer being too quick.
Lots of people have marks.
Stop digging through things that don’t belong to you.
He had stopped asking out loud.
Not stopped remembering.
Now Eleanor stood before him with that mark covered, but the room still seemed to point toward it.
He could not look away from her shoulder.
She noticed and pulled the strap tighter, shame flooding her face.
“Don’t hide it,” he said.
“I am not hiding.”
“You just did.”
Her mouth trembled.
“Because you looked at me like I became a monster.”
He had no answer.
Because part of him had.
The wedding suite pressed around them.
Warm bed.
Cash.
Keys.
Phone.
Photograph.
Door.
Security.
Birthmark.
All of it obscene.
He lowered the envelope.
“Did you know before tonight?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“That you would recognize it?”
“Yes.”
Her silence told him the answer.
He stumbled back one step.
Cash crunched under his heel.
“You knew.”
“I hoped you wouldn’t.”
He laughed once, raw and ugly.
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t get to say that like it fixes anything.”
“I’m not trying to fix it.”
“Then what are you trying to do?”
Eleanor’s expression crumpled.
“Confess before they stop me.”
The words landed just as footsteps returned to the door.
This time, more than one set.
Travis looked toward the door.
Then at Eleanor.
Then at the photograph still hidden in his hand.
“Start talking.”
She nodded, but her voice came out barely above a whisper.
May you like
“It began before your mother disappeared.”
Read Chapter 7 👉 Because Eleanor admitted she knew Travis might recognize the mark, and that meant the wedding had never been innocent.
