Chapter 15 - Why Jenna Could Never AttendFelicity pressed both hands against the front of her wedding gown.
“You all think I planned this from the beginning.”
Adrian’s voice remained flat.
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
She looked toward Jenna.
“When the invitation arrived, I only wanted to attend the gala.”
“Using my name,” Jenna said.
“The invitation said Hale.”
“It said Jenna Hale.”
Felicity ignored her.
“I thought I would go, meet people, and leave. Then Adrian spoke to me.”
She looked at him with desperate tenderness.
“You were grieving the life you had before the accident. You felt broken. I listened.”
“You repeated details from Silas’s letter.”
“Because they helped you.”
“They made me trust you.”
Felicity’s tears fell.
“I knew if Jenna attended later, you might discover the truth.”
Jenna understood.
That was why family events had stopped including her.
Why Felicity told the Montgomerys Jenna lived out of state.
Why Richard insisted Jenna work instead of attending engagement dinners.
Why invitations arrived late or not at all.
Felicity had spent three years keeping Jenna outside the rooms where one introduction could expose everything.
“This wedding invitation arrived two days before the ceremony,” Jenna said.
Richard looked ashamed.
Felicity did not deny it.
She had placed Jenna at the rear table, surrounded by distant relatives, then used the microphone to define her before anyone else could ask questions.
Just a nurse.
Not the nurse.
Not the woman Silas had searched for.
Not the person whose invitation created the romance.
Felicity had planned the humiliation as insurance.
If Jenna appeared insignificant, Silas might never look closely enough to recognize her.
Instead, cruelty had forced everyone to look.
Adrian stared at his bride.
“You invited her here to discredit her.”
Felicity’s silence answered.
May you like
The floral embroidery across her gown suddenly looked less like elegance and more like armor.
👉 Felicity’s cruel speech had not been spontaneous—it was designed to destroy Jenna’s credibility before Silas could remember her.
