Alonzo broke the seal slowly.
The ballroom stayed silent.
A single folded letter.
A smaller photograph slipped out and fell face-up onto the floor.
Cedric stepped forward and looked down at it.
His face went still.
“That’s…
that’s from the night she disappeared.”
Portia shot to her feet.
“You don’t understand what that is.”
“Then explain it,” Alonzo said quietly.
She said nothing.
Flora’s hands were shaking.
She had recognized the photograph the moment it hit the floor.
She turned away so no one could see her face.
Alonzo unfolded the letter and began reading.
His expression didn’t change — but his jaw tightened with every line.
Cedric sat back down heavily, as if his legs had given out beneath him.
“She wrote this the week before the wedding,” Alonzo said.
“She wrote it because she was afraid.”
Portia took one step toward him.
“Alonzo—”
“Sit down.”
She stopped.
He looked up from the letter and stared at her.
“She knew what you were planning.
She hid this here because she knew you’d never let it reach me.”
Portia’s mouth opened.
No words came out.
Then a door at the far end of the ballroom opened.
And the person who walked through it made Portia’s face drain of every last trace of color.