The Wedding Built on a Lie
Chapter 01 - The Wedding Built on a Lie
The ballroom of the Eden Grand looked like a dream made of crystal and white roses. Beneath six chandeliers, Celia Eden placed her hand in Noah Reed’s and promised to love him for the rest of her life.
Everyone called it a fairy-tale wedding. Celia was the only daughter of Arthur Eden, founder of a hotel empire worth hundreds of millions. Noah was a gifted young architect with no famous name, no family fortune, and a mountain of debt from his younger sister’s medical treatment.
What no one knew was that Noah had first approached Celia for money.
Six months earlier, Victor Lang—Celia’s uncle and chief financial officer of Eden Group—had offered Noah a private deal. Marry Celia, persuade her to sign over voting control of her trust, and Victor would erase Noah’s debts and fund the surgery his sister desperately needed.
Noah told himself he was not hurting anyone. Celia was lonely, Victor said. She wanted a husband. The marriage could benefit them both.
Then Noah actually fell in love with her.
By the wedding day, every smile from Celia felt like another weight on his chest. She adjusted his bow tie and whispered, “You look terrified.”
“I’m afraid I don’t deserve this.”
“Then spend the rest of your life proving you do.”
Across the ballroom, Victor raised his champagne glass and gave Noah a warning look.
After the ceremony, Victor cornered him near the service hall.
“The trust papers are in your honeymoon suite,” he said. “Get her signature tonight.”
“I’m not doing it.”
Victor’s expression hardened. “Your sister’s final hospital payment is due Friday.”
Noah felt the trap close around him.
Later, in the suite, Celia found the trust documents beneath a silver tray. She read the first page without changing expression.
“Did Victor give you these?”
Noah could have confessed. Instead, fear won.
“They’re just estate papers.”
Celia looked at him for a long moment, then placed the documents in the fireplace without signing them.
As the pages curled into black ash, she said quietly, “I hope one day you trust me enough to tell me why you really married me.”
Noah froze.
Celia already knew.
For the first time that day, Noah noticed that Celia was not wearing the diamond bracelet Victor had given her. She had left it beside the unsigned papers, as though she had already begun separating gifts from traps.
May you like
Before he could speak, her phone lit up with an anonymous message:
Your husband is not the only person lying to you.
