Julian looked calm. Tall. Smiling.
But the moment my father saw him, everything changed.
He stopped walking so suddenly I nearly stumbled forward alone. His grip tightened around my arm until it hurt.
“Dad?” I whispered.
His face had gone pale, as if he had seen someone return from the dead.
“No,” he breathed. “No… this can’t be.”
Julian’s smile disappeared. He rushed toward us, but when he came closer, my father lifted a trembling hand toward him.
“How can it be you?” Dad shouted. “I was sure you disappeared thirty years ago!”
The music faltered.
Whispers spread through the church.
I stared between them, frozen.
“Do you know each other?”
My father whispered a name I had never heard before.
“Adrian…”