The Woman Who Stopped the Wedding
Chapter 01 - The Woman Who Stopped the Wedding
The Grand Bellmore ballroom glittered with crystal and white roses. More than two hundred guests stood as Olivia Cross walked toward the altar, ready to marry Mason Vale, the charming heir to Vale Meridian Holdings. Reporters called it the wedding of the year because it would unite two powerful families.
Halfway down the aisle, a woman in a white satin dress pushed through the guests.
Natalie Cross—Olivia’s older sister and the former chief financial officer of Crosswell Medical—looked pale and unsteady. She had disappeared three weeks earlier after accusing Mason’s family of hiding debt through shell companies. Mason claimed she had suffered a breakdown. Olivia wanted to believe him, because believing Natalie meant admitting her groom might be using her.
“Natalie, stop,” Olivia pleaded.
Natalie tried to speak, but her knees gave way. She collapsed onto the marble floor as her silver clutch slid several feet away. Guests gasped. Mason remained beside the altar, his face strangely calm.
The bride rushed toward her sister. Natalie’s eyes were open, but she struggled to breathe. She pointed weakly at the clutch.
“Phone,” she whispered.
Olivia opened the bag and found a black phone vibrating against a folded legal document. A message filled the screen in capital letters:
ALL COMPANY ASSETS FROZEN.
Olivia stared at Natalie. Crosswell Medical was the company their late father had built from one clinic. Its pensions, research accounts, and medical patents were worth hundreds of millions.
“What did you do?” Olivia asked.
“I stopped the transfer,” Natalie said. “The papers you were going to sign after the ceremony aren’t wedding documents. They give Mason control of everything.”
Mason stepped forward and called her a liar. He told the guests Natalie had stolen company funds and was trying to destroy Olivia’s happiness before the police caught her.
Then Natalie looked toward the ballroom doors.
“They’re not here for me.”
The doors opened. Four federal investigators entered with a court order, followed by Crosswell’s head attorney and three frightened board members.
Mason’s father quietly moved toward a side exit.
The lead investigator raised his badge and announced that no one connected to Vale Meridian was permitted to leave.
Olivia looked from her groom to her sister on the floor.
May you like
Then Natalie whispered the sentence that ended the wedding before the vows began.
“Dad warned me about Mason the night he died.”
