The silence stretched unbearably long.
Every pair of eyes at the table was on Anna, waiting for her confession. Expecting something.
Her fingers curled tightly around her glass, the condensation making it slick against her palm. She could feel the weight of their gazes pressing in, the anticipation thick in the air.
She couldn’t tell them about Jaden. That wasn’t something to be shared with strangers at a bachelorette party. The contract, the betrayal, the suffocating ache of loving a man who had chosen someone else—it was hers to bear alone.
But there was something else.
Something that had haunted her for years.
Something she had never spoken out loud.
Anna took a slow breath and raised her head. The words slipped from her lips before she could stop them.
“I know my father killed
