Chapter 13: The Final Wedding Gift
Chapter 13: The Final Wedding Gift
Mary returned to the hotel under police escort.
The ballroom had been sealed as a crime scene.
Broken glasses and abandoned flowers covered the floor.
At the center of the bridal dressing room sat Daniel’s wedding gift.
A polished wooden box.
Mary entered the wedding date.
The first lock opened.
For the second, she searched Daniel’s messages.
The affair with Sophia had begun six months earlier.
But Daniel had said the code marked the first time he betrayed Mary.
She thought deeper.
Two years earlier, the night he proposed, Daniel had secretly met with Victoria to discuss the merger.
Mary entered that date.
The second lock clicked.
Inside were three encrypted drives and a handwritten letter.
Mary,
If you are reading this, I was either too afraid to tell you the truth or too selfish to deserve another chance. Possibly both.
My family targeted you before we met. My mother ordered me to get close to you because of your shares. I told myself I could protect you while still obeying her. Then I fell in love with you, and instead of telling the truth, I kept building lies.
Sophia discovered our fraud years ago. I contacted her because I needed her evidence. I also used her feelings for me. What happened between us was not an accident, and I will not insult you by calling it one.
You deserved the truth before you loved me.
Mary stopped reading.
For the first time since opening the hotel door, tears filled her eyes.
Not because she wanted him back.
Because she had loved a version of Daniel that had never fully existed.
Evelyn connected the drives to an isolated laptop.
Files appeared.
Offshore accounts.
Bribed auditors.
Fabricated losses.
Payments to Warren Pike.
And a video recording of Victoria discussing Mary’s mother.
Victoria’s voice played through the speakers.
“Elizabeth should have accepted the settlement. Once Warren frightens her, she’ll stop asking questions.”
Warren replied, “And if she doesn’t?”
Victoria paused.
“Then make certain she never reaches the investigators.”
Mary closed her eyes.
There it was.
The order that killed her mother.
Evelyn placed a hand on her shoulder.
“We have enough.”
“For criminal charges?”
“For conspiracy, fraud, forgery and likely murder.”
Mary looked at the laptop.
“What about my father?”
“The payment to Warren makes him part of the obstruction. Whether prosecutors charge him in the death will depend on what he knew.”
Mary nodded slowly.
“Give them everything.”
“Even the records involving Caldwell Technologies?”
“Yes.”
“Your company’s stock could collapse.”
Mary thought about her mother.
About Sophia.
About every employee whose future had been gambled away by wealthy people protecting themselves.
“Then we rebuild it honestly.”
Evelyn began uploading the evidence to federal investigators.
Mary’s phone buzzed.
A news alert appeared.
VICTORIA HARRINGTON RELEASED PENDING FURTHER INVESTIGATION.
Mary stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Sophia leaving the hospital.
May you like
Beneath it were six words:
Withdraw the evidence or she dies.
