The Bride’s Impossible Choice
Chapter 03 - The Bride’s Impossible Choice
When the emergency lights came on, the room beside the ballroom was empty. A rear service door stood open, and one investigator lay unconscious in the hallway. Mason immediately claimed Natalie had attacked him and fled.
Olivia no longer knew whom to trust.
Daniel Mercer quietly showed her the unconscious investigator’s hand. A black cuff link was caught between his fingers. It matched the custom set worn by Mason’s father, Richard Vale.
Mercer believed Natalie had not escaped. She had been taken.
Olivia pretended not to understand. In front of Mason, she tore the injunction in half and announced that the wedding would continue once the federal agents finished their search. Mason relaxed for the first time that day.
It was an act.
Wearing a staff coat over her gown, Olivia followed Natalie’s phone signal to the parking level. She found her sister locked in a catering van with Crosswell attorney Samuel Price. Samuel said Richard Vale had forced him to create the transfer contract by threatening his family.
Natalie revealed the truth about the old recording. Her full sentence had been, “Olivia cannot be allowed to take control until we prove the Vales are not using her.” She had delayed Olivia’s board appointment because their father left a confidential warning: Vale Meridian was nearly bankrupt and planned to survive by absorbing Crosswell.
Their father discovered the scheme before his boating trip. Mason met him at the lake house and demanded silence. No one could prove he caused the accident, but he stole the red case of evidence after the boat capsized.
Natalie had spent two years rebuilding that evidence.
A noise echoed through the garage. Richard Vale appeared with two private security guards. He demanded Natalie’s phone and warned Olivia that Crosswell would collapse if the marriage failed. The Vales’ loans were secretly tied to Crosswell stock; when their debt became public, both families would lose everything.
Olivia stepped in front of Natalie.
Then she shocked her sister by handing Richard the phone.
“You were right,” Olivia told him. “Natalie has controlled me long enough.”
Richard smiled and ordered the guards to release them.
What he did not know was that Olivia had switched phones inside the van. The device in his hand was broadcasting every word to the ballroom’s giant screen.
Natalie’s real phone vibrated with a recovered audio file.
May you like
It contained Mason’s voice saying, “Once Olivia signs, her company belongs to us.”
Before Olivia could play the rest, Mason entered the garage holding the wedding contract—and a lighter.
