CHAPTER 4 — THE CONTRACT BEHIND THE WEDDING
CHAPTER 4 — THE CONTRACT BEHIND THE WEDDING
The wedding was nineteen days away.
By sunrise, there would be no wedding.
Not yet.
I wanted to understand exactly what they had planned before I destroyed it.
Celeste sat across from me in the library while Marcus stood near the door.
She hadn't slept.
Neither had I.
The blood on the floor beneath the conservatory had been cleaned again.
The men who had broken into the estate were gone.
Ewan was gone.
And the one person who could tell me where he'd been taken was sitting across from me, staring at a cup of untouched coffee.
I placed the contract between us.
"Start here."
Celeste looked at the document.
"This is the version they wanted you to sign."
"The version?"
"There were three."
I stared at her.
"Three?"
"Yes."
She opened her purse and removed another folder.
Then another.
She placed both on the table.
"The first was the legitimate agreement."
"The one I saw?"
"Yes."
"The second?"
She slid it toward me.
"Modified."
I opened it.
The changes were subtle.
Almost invisible.
A paragraph concerning the family trust had been altered.
A clause concerning marital property had been expanded.
Another concerning corporate voting rights had been rewritten.
I read it twice.
Then I looked at her.
"And the third?"
Celeste hesitated.
"The third was never supposed to exist."
She placed a sealed envelope on the table.
My name was written across it.
Not by her.
Not by my lawyer.
The handwriting belonged to someone I knew.
My father.
I opened it.
Inside was a contract dated six months earlier.
Before my engagement.
Before I had even met Celeste.
My stomach tightened.
"How did he get this?"
"He wrote it."
"This isn't a marriage contract."
"No."
I kept reading.
It was a transfer agreement.
The document would grant temporary authority over several family companies to a spouse following marriage.
But there was something else.
A condition.
If I became incapacitated, disappeared, or was declared unable to manage the companies, the spouse would receive full voting authority.
I looked at Celeste.
"Why would my father need this?"
She didn't answer.
I read the final paragraph.
If the marriage occurred before my thirtieth birthday, the spouse could assume control of the family trust upon certification of my incapacity.
My pulse slowed.
Then everything inside me went cold.
"How old am I?"
Celeste looked confused.
"Twenty-nine."
"Exactly."
She nodded.
"Your birthday is in six weeks."
I looked at the contract.
The wedding was nineteen days away.
My birthday was six weeks away.
They weren't planning to wait.
They needed the marriage first.
Then they needed me incapacitated.
I stared at Celeste.
"That's why."
She nodded.
"That's why they rushed everything."
I thought about the engagement.
The sudden wedding date.
The pressure from both families.
The endless conversations about security.
The strange questions about my health.
The doctor my father had recommended.
The insurance policy I'd never examined.
Pieces that had seemed unrelated suddenly aligned.
I leaned back.
"They were going to kill me."
Celeste looked down.
"Or make everyone believe you were incapable of managing the company."
"Either way."
"Yes."
Marcus stepped forward.
"Boss."
I looked at him.
He held a folder.
"We found something in the office."
"What?"
"The doctor."
I took the folder.
Inside were medical records.
My medical records.
But the signatures weren't mine.
Someone had been documenting symptoms I had never experienced.
Confusion.
Memory loss.
Episodes of aggression.
Insomnia.
Paranoia.
I looked at Marcus.
"Who signed these?"
He pointed to the bottom.
Dr. Henry Vale.
The same physician my father had recommended.
I laughed.
One short sound.
"They were building a medical history."
Marcus nodded.
"So when something happens to you, there'll already be paperwork."
I closed the folder.
"And the police will believe I'm unstable."
Celeste whispered:
"And the court will believe your wife should manage everything."
I looked at her.
"That's what you were for."
She nodded.
"I was supposed to be the perfect wife."
I looked down at the engagement ring on her finger.
"How much were you promised?"
She hesitated.
"Thirty million."
Marcus swore under his breath.
Celeste didn't defend herself.
"Thirty million dollars."
"And your family?"
"My father would keep his companies."
"And you?"
"I would have the money."
I stared at her.
"Was that enough?"
She looked at the ring.
"At first."
"And now?"
She removed it.
Placed it on the table.
"I don't want it anymore."
I said nothing.
She pushed it toward me.
"Neither the money."
I didn't touch it.
"You should have thought about that before."
"I know."
"You nearly helped destroy my family."
"I know."
"You lied to me every day."
"I know."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I know."
I looked away.
There was no satisfaction in seeing her cry.
Only exhaustion.
Then I remembered Ewan.
"What did he tell you before he disappeared?"
Celeste's expression changed.
"He said there was someone inside your legal team."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"You do."
She shook her head.
"I know the name."
"Tell me."
"Victor Hale."
I froze.
My father's attorney.
The man who had represented my family for thirty-two years.
The man who had attended every major signing.
The man who had been present when my mother created the trust.
The man who had signed my father's death certificate paperwork.
I stood.
"Get him."
Marcus looked at me.
"Alive?"
"Absolutely."
Victor Hale arrived at noon.
He didn't come alone.
Two lawyers accompanied him.
He walked into my office wearing a dark suit and carrying a leather briefcase.
He looked exactly as he always had.
Calm.
Professional.
Unshakable.
He saw Celeste.
Then Marcus.
Then me.
His expression barely changed.
"Elias."
"Sit."
He sat.
I placed the three contracts on the desk.
His eyes moved across them.
He didn't touch them.
"Where did you get these?"
"Does it matter?"
"Very much."
"Why?"
"Because some of these documents are confidential."
I smiled.
"So is my life."
He said nothing.
I opened the first contract.
"Did you draft this?"
"Yes."
"The second?"
"Yes."
"The third?"
He paused.
"No."
"You're lying."
"I am not."
I pushed the third contract toward him.
"That's my father's signature."
Victor looked at it.
Then back at me.
"Your father is dead."
"So you keep saying."
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Fear.
For the first time in thirty years, Victor Hale looked afraid.
I leaned forward.
"Who wrote this?"
"I don't know."
"Who asked you to prepare the other two?"
"I was instructed."
"By whom?"
He remained silent.
Marcus stepped closer.
Victor's lawyer immediately protested.
"Mr. Moretti, if you're going to threaten my client—"
"I haven't threatened anyone."
I looked at Victor.
"Yet."
The lawyer stopped talking.
Victor swallowed.
"I cannot discuss privileged matters."
"Then I'll make this simple."
I placed another document on the desk.
His bank records.
His eyes widened.
"You've been receiving payments."
He stared at the paper.
"Those are legitimate."
"From a company registered in Delaware."
"Yes."
"A company owned by a man who doesn't exist."
Victor said nothing.
I turned the page.
"Eight payments in two years."
Then another.
"Three payments six months before my engagement."
Then another.
"One payment two weeks before Celeste entered my life."
Celeste looked at him.
Victor finally turned toward her.
She stared back.
He understood.
The game was over.
"Who paid you?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
"Victor."
Silence.
I leaned back.
"Then I'll ask another question."
He looked at me.
"Did you know Ewan was alive?"
His face went completely white.
Celeste closed her eyes.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
I didn't move.
Victor whispered:
"No."
"You're lying again."
He looked toward the window.
Then said:
"I thought he was."
"Until when?"
He swallowed.
"Until yesterday."
"Who told you?"
Victor didn't answer.
I stood.
"Get out."
He blinked.
"What?"
"Leave."
His lawyers gathered their things.
Victor stood slowly.
At the door, he stopped.
"Elias."
I looked at him.
"There are things you don't understand."
"I understand enough."
"No."
His voice became quiet.
"You don't understand what your father built."
"My father is dead."
Victor looked at me.
"That's not the part you should be afraid of."
He walked out.
Marcus closed the door.
Celeste whispered:
"He knows."
"Yes."
"What are you going to do?"
I looked at the contracts.
"Cancel the wedding."
She nodded.
"Then what?"
I picked up my phone.
"Find Ewan."
That afternoon, I went to my mother's room.
Delia was sitting beside her.
My mother was awake.
I held up the contract.
"Mom."
Her eyes moved toward it.
"Did Dad create this?"
She stared at the page.
Then shook her head.
"No."
I moved closer.
"Then who?"
She lifted her hand.
Her finger trembled.
She pointed toward the door.
I looked behind me.
No one.
Then she pointed toward herself.
Then toward the contract.
Then she touched her chest.
Her wedding ring.
I understood.
"Someone used your name?"
She nodded.
I felt cold.
"Mom, did Dad force you to sign something?"
She closed her eyes.
A tear ran down her cheek.
Then she nodded.
I sat beside her.
"What did he take?"
She looked toward the old family portrait.
At first I didn't understand.
Then I noticed something.
The portrait had always hung slightly crooked.
I stood.
I removed it from the wall.
Behind it was a small metal safe.
I stared.
Delia whispered:
"Ewan found that."
I turned toward her.
"What is inside?"
She looked at my mother.
My mother nodded.
I opened the safe.
Inside was a single envelope.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed my father.
But he wasn't alone.
Standing beside him was a man I had not seen since childhood.
My uncle.
The man everyone said had died twenty years ago.
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten message.
THE WEDDING IS THE KEY.
Below it:
THE WIFE GETS THE TRUST.
And beneath that:
THE SON GETS THE BLAME.
I stared at the words.
Then I understood the entire plan.
They didn't need Celeste to love me.
They needed her to marry me.
They didn't need to kill me immediately.
They needed to make me look unstable first.
Then, once she controlled the trust, every illegal transaction could be blamed on me.
I would become the criminal.
She would become the victim.
My father's empire would survive.
And my uncle would inherit everything from the shadows.
I folded the paper.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Then I heard breathing.
A man's voice finally came through.
"Elias."
I froze.
"Ewan?"
A pause.
Then:
"Don't trust Celeste."
My eyes went to her.
She was standing across the room.
She couldn't hear the voice.
I whispered:
"Where are you?"
"Somewhere your father can't find me."
"Who has you?"
Silence.
Then Ewan said:
"Everyone."
The line went dead.
I lowered the phone.
Celeste walked toward me.
"What happened?"
I looked at her.
For the first time, I couldn't tell whether she was telling the truth.
She noticed the change in my expression.
"What?"
I didn't answer.
Because I had just realized something worse than the contract.
The wedding wasn't the trap.
The wedding was only the beginning.
May you like
And someone had already started preparing the world to believe I was the villain.
END OF CHAPTER 4
