soon,” Julian announced out loud, drawing attention away from Noel and Clara.
Noel glanced up at him and smiled. “Thanks, Julian. Do you know what happened? I was just a metre away… I don’t—” Noel paused as he caught Julian staring at Stephanie. Noel had shifted his gaze between them several times before he let his head fall back and sighed. “Son of a… Please don’t make a scene when Clara comes to. Let this be her day… our day. For our sakes, could you have whatever this is later?”
Julian caught a glimpse of Stephanie’s flinch, but she didn’t look his way. Instead, her eyes focused on her best friend. Before Julian could reply, Alex handed Noel a cold towel. Noel thanked his brother-in-law as he stood up and dabbed his wife’s forehead with it. After a while, Clara began to stir and then she mumbled as her eyes fluttered open.
“Noel?” Clara asked hazily as she slowly smiled at her husband.
Noel took the towel off her forehead, handed it to Julian, and set his hands on his wife’s cheeks. “Shit, Clara. You scared the hell out of me!”
“What hap—” Clara paused, her eyebrows knitted. She stared at Julian and then she shook her head at her maid of honour. “Right in front of me all this time,” she breathed as she began to stand.
“What’s going on?” Alex asked.
Noel stood up and helped Clara to her feet. “Never mind, Alex. Mind helping me take Clara to the bridal suite? Give her some air before dinner is served.”
Alex looked at everyone with a baffled expression on his face before he shrugged and took his sister from Noel.
“Wait. No!” Clara had fought before Noel whispered in her ear. Sighing, she glared at Stephanie and then at Julian. Then Noel nodded to Alex before he faced him and Stephanie.
Noel scratched his head, as if to help him understand what had just happened. “You both realise my wife just fainted at the realisation of you two.”
Julian dropped the wet towel on the chair and raised his eyebrow at Noel. Before he could even speak, Stephanie had cleared her throat and stopped him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Noel,” she stated.
Julian gawked at her, shocked at her revelation.
“Don’t need to convince me, Stevie. Take it outside. I love you both, but it’s my wedding, and I really don’t need the drama right now. I just heard that Sarah was around. I’m trying my best to make my wife happy here. Can you both just not stress her out… further?”
Ignoring Noel, Julian faced Stephanie. Only one name would reveal the truth to whether the woman in front of him was truly his Stephanie.
“Blondie, it’s been a while.”
Blondie.
There was no doubt about it. The man that stood in front of her was the man she had given her virginity to four years prior. That one nickname forced its way back into her heart and made her breathing falter. All her years of running and he’d found her. Her links to Clara and Noel brought Julian sauntering back into her life. So much regret filled her entire body that she looked away.
In some form, she regretted that night. Regretted that she had walked away. Regretted never saying goodbye and regretted giving a complete stranger that one last ounce of control she had left in her life. Being with Julian all those summers ago, she was in control. She controlled that week; she controlled whom she was and made decisions of her own accord. Giving him her virginity had been one of them. What she couldn’t control were the three words that she’d whispered once he’d broken her hymen.
“I love you.”
Stevie closed her eyes and tried to forget about the aftermath of what had happened when she’d left him. She tried to push away from the flashbacks of London and her darker times. The times when she had to be saved. The times she had spent years trying to make amends for. They were the days she wished she’d forget. But coming back home, no amount of alcohol could help her.
Ignoring Julian, Stevie took in the concern on Noel’s face. In some way, meeting Julian all over again had put a dent in Noel and Clara’s wedding, and for that, she felt guilty. They had both come so far that the idea that she was taking away from their day had her wincing.
“You better go see her, Stevie,” Noel suggested. He was giving her a way of escape, prolonging