Chapter 7 - The Long Walk Across Marble
Evelyn didn't look at the high-society guests. She didn't look at the expensive decorations, the white flowers, or the three-tiered wedding cake. Her gaze locked directly onto the small girl in the sleeveless blue tulle dress standing in the center of the room.
Her eyes drifted down to Lily’s left cheek—to the swollen, bright red mark left by Julian’s hand.
An expression of profound, terrifying pain crossed Evelyn’s face, instantly replaced by a cold, lethal focus.
She took her first step into the ballroom. The soft click of her heels against the marble floor rang out like a slow, deliberate drumbeat in the dead silence of the room.
Julian stumbled backward, his hand grasping the edge of a guest table, knocking over two crystal champagne flutes that shattered on the floor. "Evelyn... wait... listen to me..."
Evelyn ignored him entirely. She walked past him as if he were nothing more than a pile of dust on the rug.
As she reached the center of the floor, James stepped back slightly, keeping his body positioned as a shield against Julian, but opening the path between mother and daughter.
Evelyn dropped to her knees on the hard marble floor. She didn't care about the silk of her dress. She held out her arms, her hands trembling violently, tears finally spilling over her lashes and running down her pale cheeks.
"Lily..." Evelyn whispered, her voice choking on the name she had been forbidden to speak for three long years. "My sweet, brave little girl..."
Lily took one hesitant step forward, her small shoes clicking softly. She looked at Evelyn’s face, at the familiar curve of her smile, at the tiny mole near her left eye that she remembered from her earliest dreams.
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"Mommy!"
Lily broke into a full sprint, throwing her tiny body across the remaining space and slamming into Evelyn’s chest with all the force her small frame possessed.
