The Secret Behind the Wedding
Chapter 02 - The Secret Behind the Wedding
Noah asked Grace to stay inside while he called someone. She assumed he was calling an ambulance, but his voice was low and controlled.
“We have the recording,” he said. “Move now.”
Grace opened the door. “Who are you talking to?”
Before he could answer, footsteps rushed down the hallway. Olivia appeared, still wearing her veil, followed by Martin Kessler, the family attorney. Martin had managed the Hart estate since the sisters were teenagers. He was also the man whose voice Grace recognized from the recording.
Olivia’s eyes dropped to the phone in Grace’s hand.
“You should not have come,” she said.
Noah stepped between them. “Tell me the document is fake.”
Olivia insisted she had only tried to protect the vineyard. She said Grace had become emotional after their mother’s death and planned to sell to a hotel developer. Martin claimed the power of attorney was legitimate and warned Noah that Grace could be charged with stealing private estate records.
Grace unlocked the phone and showed Noah a series of bank transfers. Over four months, $840,000 had been moved from an account created for Grace’s unborn child. The money had paid wedding vendors, covered Martin’s gambling debts, and funded a shell company controlled by Olivia.
Noah looked at his bride as though he had never seen her before.
“You told me your inheritance paid for everything.”
“It was going to be mine anyway,” Olivia snapped.
That sentence ended any doubt.
Martin moved toward Grace and reached for the phone. Another contraction folded her forward. Noah caught her before she hit the wall. Olivia stared at her sister’s pain but did not move to help.
Then the lights in the hallway flickered.
Martin pulled a key card from his pocket and headed toward the security office. Grace realized what he intended to do: erase the vineyard’s camera footage before anyone could review it.
Noah blocked him. “You’re not leaving.”
Martin smiled. “You still think this is your wedding, son. It was always a transaction.”
From the banquet hall came the sound of music stopping, followed by a woman’s amplified voice ordering everyone to remain calm.
Olivia’s face went pale.
Grace heard heavy footsteps approaching from both ends of the corridor. Police officers appeared beneath the fluorescent lights, led by Detective Elena Ruiz in tactical gear.
Ruiz looked at Noah. “Did she play the recording?”
He nodded.
“Good,” the detective said. “Then we finally have enough.”
Grace stared at Noah.
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He had not called an ambulance first.
He had called the police because he had been working with them all along.
