Chapter 8 - Before the Ceremony
Daniel watched the clip once.
Then a second time.
Madeline stood near the service corridor in her wedding dress, one hand pressed against Victor Hale’s chest. Victor leaned down and kissed her. Not a quick mistake. Not a confused goodbye.
A familiar kiss.
Rebecca took the phone from Daniel before he dropped it.
“When was this?” she asked Lucy.
“About twenty minutes before the ceremony.”
Daniel felt as if the floor shifted beneath him.
He had spent that exact time upstairs writing wedding vows.
Thomas had been helping him fix his tie.
Madeline had been kissing the man helping steal from his company.
Lucy whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Daniel nodded once because speech was impossible.
Rebecca copied both videos with Lucy’s permission and took her contact information.
Outside the suite, Daniel leaned against the wall.
“I was going to build a life with her.”
Rebecca did not offer comfort she could not mean.
Instead she said, “Then we make sure she doesn’t take your company with her.”
That was why Daniel trusted Rebecca.
By midnight, Madeline had been released after giving a statement. Eleanor’s attorney arrived in a black sedan and turned the hotel lobby into a legal war zone.
Victor Hale was nowhere to be found.
The $2.8 million had been transferred again.
Then again.
Malik traced the chain through three accounts before it disappeared into a private bank in the Cayman Islands.
At 12:47 a.m., Daniel finally called Thomas.
“You okay?” Thomas asked.
“No.”
“Good answer.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Dad, there’s something else.”
He told him about Madeline and Victor.
Thomas went quiet.
Daniel expected anger.
Instead his father said, “Come home.”
“I have to stay with Rebecca.”
“You don’t have to be strong every minute.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
For the first time that night, tears came.
Not because the wedding had ended.
Because his father still sounded like home.
Then Thomas’s voice changed.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Someone’s at my door.”
Daniel straightened.
“At one in the morning?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t open it.”
A hard knock sounded through the phone.
Thomas moved away.
“Dad?”
Another knock.
Then a man’s voice, muffled but clear enough to hear.
“Mr. Carter? I’m from First National Bank. There’s been a problem with your safe-deposit box.”
Daniel’s blood went cold.
“Dad, do not open that door.”
May you like
Silence.
Then Thomas whispered, “Daniel… the man outside is holding my box.”
