Chapter 3: The Family Waiting Downstairs
Chapter 3: The Family Waiting Downstairs
A knock struck the suite door.
“Daniel?” a woman called. “The ceremony starts in twelve minutes.”
Mary recognized the voice immediately.
Victoria Harrington.
Daniel’s mother.
Sophia went pale.
“She knows I’m here.”
Mary looked at her. “How?”
“She arranged the room.”
Daniel swore under his breath.
The knocking became sharper.
“Daniel, open this door.”
Mary walked over and opened it.
Victoria stood in the hallway wearing a silver designer gown and enough diamonds to purchase a small house.
Her impatient expression vanished when she saw Mary.
Then she noticed Daniel’s open shirt.
The scattered clothes.
Sophia on the bed.
For half a second, Victoria looked horrified.
Then her face became smooth again.
“Mary, darling,” she said softly. “This is not what it appears to be.”
Mary almost laughed.
Daniel had inherited that sentence honestly.
Victoria entered and shut the door.
“You must be devastated. We all are.”
“All of you?”
Victoria glanced at Sophia with open disgust.
“That woman has been stalking my son for years.”
Sophia stared at her. “You paid me to come here.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Mary turned toward Victoria.
“Is that true?”
“Of course not.”
Sophia pointed toward the discarded lace dress on the floor.
“She sent the dress to my apartment. She told me Daniel wanted to see me before the ceremony.”
Victoria’s smile disappeared.
“Be very careful, Sophia.”
Mary watched them.
The betrayal was no longer simple.
Someone had arranged this meeting.
Someone wanted Mary to discover Daniel.
The question was why.
Mary held up the black phone.
Victoria’s eyes flickered toward it.
There.
A reaction.
Mary understood.
“You wanted me to catch them.”
Victoria said nothing.
“You knew Daniel would sleep with her. You wanted me emotional enough to cancel the wedding.”
Daniel looked at his mother. “What?”
Victoria remained perfectly still.
Mary opened the acquisition envelope.
The first document was a prenuptial amendment she had never seen.
It stated that if Mary canceled the wedding after the merger’s public announcement, the Caldwell family would pay a termination penalty of ninety million dollars.
Her breath caught.
Daniel snatched the document.
“What the hell is this?”
Victoria’s calm finally broke.
“It was protection.”
“Protection for whom?” Mary asked.
“For the investors.”
“You forged my signature.”
Victoria stepped closer. “Your father’s company is overvalued. Once the truth comes out, the Harrington name will be dragged down with it.”
Mary shook her head.
“No. Daniel’s messages say your company is drowning in debt.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Mom?”
Victoria looked at him as though he were a disappointing child.
“You were supposed to keep her distracted until the marriage certificate was signed.”
Mary finally saw the entire shape of the trap.
Victoria wanted the merger.
But she did not trust Daniel to control Mary afterward.
So she had arranged the affair to humiliate Mary, trigger the penalty clause and take ninety million dollars without completing the marriage.
Daniel had betrayed Mary.
His mother had betrayed everyone.
Mary slipped the documents into her clutch.
Victoria blocked the doorway.
“You’re not taking those.”
Mary smiled.
“Your mistake was believing I came upstairs alone.”
The suite door opened behind Victoria.
Mary’s father stood in the hallway with two corporate attorneys and the hotel’s head of security.
Richard Caldwell looked at Daniel.
Then at Sophia.
Then at his daughter.
May you like
His voice was quiet.
“Tell me who I need to destroy.”
