She nodded slowly. “Technically, yes. But they stayed together. They fell in love… after.”
Suddenly, all the beautiful details of the wedding—the fairy lights, the heartfelt speeches—seemed like a performance. The joy in the room felt artificial. “You mean this whole wedding—this was for show?” I asked.
My mom was speechless, staring at the cupcake tower as if it were a symbol of the deception. The news was a lot to take in. Celine had always been impulsive, but this was a different level of secrecy.
I found Celine behind the bar a few minutes later, drinking champagne from a teacup. “We need to talk,” I said.
She gave me a guilty look. “She told you, didn’t she?”
“Yep. About the secret marriage. The immigration thing. The lies,” I replied.
Celine sighed. “I was going to tell you. I swear. But I figured once it was official-official, it wouldn’t matter.”
She confessed that she met Gavin at a visa assistance seminar. What began as a favor turned into a genuine connection. “We didn’t expect to… actually fall for each other,” she admitted. She hadn’t told our mom the full story because she “didn’t want to ruin today.”
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