"Then you can speak like a lawyer instead of shouting at my bride."
Several guests shifted.
Graves's expression hardened.
"I am here to prevent you from making a very unfortunate mistake."
Silas looked directly at him.
"That choice was mine before you opened the door."
Graves smiled unpleasantly.
"Perhaps you'll think differently when you learn what this woman has done."
He opened the leather portfolio.
Removed a document.
And held it toward the pastor.
"Eleanor Whitmore removed private correspondence, financial records, and medical documents belonging to the Carrington family. Those materials are being unlawfully withheld."
The reverend didn't accept the paper.
Instead, he looked toward Eleanor.
"Miss Whitmore?"
Eleanor's fingers trembled.
She had imagined her past catching up with her.
She had imagined letters.
Threats.
A confrontation on the street.
But she hadn't imagined a Boston attorney interrupting her wedding before the entire town.
And she certainly hadn't imagined having to explain the worst discovery of her life while standing beside the man she had only recently begun to trust.
Silas looked toward her.
"Eleanor."
She swallowed.
"Yes?"
"Is there something you need to tell me?"
For one terrible moment, she considered denying everything.
She could claim Graves was mistaken.
She could insist the papers meant nothing.
She could beg Silas to finish the ceremony before asking questions.
But she'd left Boston precisely because she refused to spend her life living inside other people's lies.
And earlier that morning, Silas had stood before the pastor and told her he wanted honesty above all else.
She took a slow breath.
"Yes."
Silas's expression changed slightly.
She reached beneath the lace at her waist and withdrew a folded letter.
The paper was worn from being handled.
A dark-red seal had been broken near the edge.
She held it carefully.
Then turned toward Reverend Price.
"This letter is from Edmund Carrington."
Graves stepped forward.
"That is stolen correspondence!"
Eleanor didn't look at him.
She looked at the pastor.
Then at Silas.
"Edmund Carrington was the man my father intended me to marry."
The room grew quiet.
"He told everyone his first wife had suffered a terrible deterioration of the mind and had been placed under medical care."
Graves spoke sharply.
"This is neither the time nor the place."
Eleanor raised her voice.
"He paid a physician to declare a perfectly sane woman mentally incompetent so he could take control of her inheritance."
A gasp passed through the church.
Graves's face changed.
Eleanor lifted the letter higher.
"And I have his own words proving he arranged it."
For one extraordinary second, nobody moved.
Then Graves lunged toward the paper.
"Give that to me!"
Silas caught his wrist before he reached Eleanor.
The movement was fast.