Chapter 4: Twelve Minutes Until the Wedding
Chapter 4: Twelve Minutes Until the Wedding
Richard took off his suit jacket and placed it around Sophia’s shoulders.
Daniel stared at him.
“You’re protecting her?”
“I’m protecting the person in this room who appears most frightened.”
“She helped set Mary up!”
Sophia shook her head rapidly. “I didn’t know about the contract.”
Richard’s attorney, Evelyn Cross, examined the forged document.
“This signature is sophisticated,” she said. “But it won’t survive forensic review.”
Victoria crossed her arms.
“You have no proof I created it.”
Mary held up the black phone.
“We have your messages.”
Victoria’s expression remained cold.
“A stolen phone containing fabricated messages?”
Richard looked at his daughter.
“What do you want to do?”
Everyone expected Mary to say she wanted the police.
Or revenge.
Or to disappear through a service elevator before the guests saw her.
Instead, she looked at the clock.
“We have nine minutes.”
Daniel frowned. “Until what?”
“Until the ceremony.”
Richard studied her face.
“You’re not marrying him.”
“No.”
“Then why go downstairs?”
“Because four hundred guests are waiting. Investors, reporters, board members and every person Victoria intended to deceive.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“You will not humiliate this family publicly.”
Mary turned toward her.
“You brought another woman into my groom’s bed on my wedding day to trigger a fraudulent penalty clause.”
“I was protecting my son.”
“No. You were using him.”
Daniel looked wounded.
“Mary, we can fix this.”
She stared at him.
“You slept with another woman less than an hour before our vows.”
“She manipulated me.”
Sophia’s voice trembled with anger.
“You contacted me for six months.”
Daniel froze.
Sophia reached toward the bedside table and picked up her own phone.
“I kept everything.”
Daniel moved toward her.
Richard’s security guard stepped into his path.
Sophia opened a message thread.
There were hundreds of texts.
Photos.
Promises.
Daniel had told Sophia he loved her. He had promised to leave Mary after securing control of the Caldwell company.
One message read:
Mary is too trusting. Once the shares are transferred, she won’t have the power to stop us.
Mary read it twice.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“Mary—”
She raised one hand.
“Save it for the ballroom.”
Victoria’s composure finally fractured.
“What are you planning?”
Mary took her bouquet from the table near the door.
“I’m going to give everyone exactly what they came to see.”
She walked into the hallway.
Her father followed.
Behind them, Victoria called out.
“If you expose us, the Caldwell merger collapses!”
Mary did not turn around.
“That merger was the only reason your family was still solvent.”
She stepped into the elevator.
May you like
As the doors began to close, she met Victoria’s horrified gaze.
“By Monday morning, you won’t have a company left to save.”
