No senators attended.
No board members gave speeches.
Naomi stood beside Lucas.
Lily scattered flower petals in uneven clumps and whispered instructions to everyone near her.
The hotel had replaced the camera outside the former executive lounge.
The door itself was gone.
Evelyn had ordered the room converted into an open employee rest area with glass walls and no private lock.
Before entering the ballroom, she paused beneath the chandeliers.
The room was warm again, but not suffocating.
Lucas reached for her hand.
“Ready, wife?”
Evelyn looked at the man who had walked into danger carrying everything he could not afford to lose.
Then she looked at Lily waiting for them at the end of the aisle.
“I’ve been ready since you found me,” she said.
They walked forward together, not because a trust required it, not because witnesses were watching, and not because either of them needed to be saved.
They walked together because the lie that had protected them for one terrible night had finally become the life they both chose.
