Chapter 4 - Eight Minutes in the Library
Nobody needed to ask who sent the video.
Walter raised both hands. “Not me.”
Elena looked at the screen of the nearest phone.
The video timestamp was from six nights earlier.
Nathan stood in Victoria’s library with a glass of whiskey in one hand. Victoria sat behind her desk.
His voice came clearly through the ballroom speakers when someone connected the file to the wedding sound system.
“I’m not taking her company.”
Victoria answered, “You’re not taking anything. You’re consolidating assets before marriage creates complications.”
“That is her company.”
“And you are my son.”
Nathan paced in the video. “I told you her contract amount because you asked whether she was financially stable. That’s all.”
“Then sign your acknowledgment and let me handle the rest.”
The recording stopped.
Elena stared at Nathan.
“You signed an acknowledgment?”
Nathan shook his head. “No. I left.”
Victoria said, “This proves nothing.”
“It proves you knew,” Elena replied.
Nathan stepped closer. “I knew she wanted a family agreement. I didn’t know she forged your name. I swear.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because every time I push back, she goes bigger.”
Elena looked at Victoria. “And your solution was to let me walk into the trap?”
Nathan’s voice broke. “I thought I could stop it quietly.”
“That is what cowards call silence when they want credit for good intentions.”
A few guests looked away.
Victoria’s face hardened. “Do not speak to my son that way.”
Elena turned on her. “You lost the right to correct my tone when you forged my signature.”
A security guard approached Walter. “Sir, Mrs. Hale asked that you leave.”
Walter laughed. “Of course she did.”
Elena lifted a hand. “He stays.”
The guard hesitated.
Victoria said, “This is my event.”
Elena looked around the ballroom.
Actually, the ballroom contract was in Marlowe Events’ name. Elena had negotiated the vendor package herself to save Nathan’s family the trouble.
She smiled faintly.
“No,” she said. “It’s mine.”
Then she faced the bandleader. “Stop the music. Shut down the bar. Nobody deletes anything.”
For the first time that night, Victoria looked uncertain.
Elena turned to Walter. “Who sent that video?”
Walter looked toward the balcony above the ballroom.
A young woman in a navy catering uniform stood behind the railing.
Nathan whispered, “Claire?”
Elena looked at him.
May you like
“Who is Claire?”
His face told her the answer would hurt.
