The Family Secret Behind the Wedding
Chapter 02 - The Family Secret Behind the Wedding
A metallic click echoed through the ballroom. Security guards moved in front of every exit, but Nathaniel stepped between Claire and his father.
“Open the doors,” he said.
Victor smiled with the patience of a man accustomed to obedience. “This ceremony will continue. Afterward, the family can discuss whatever fantasy Martin has created.”
Evelyn held Rose’s letter against her chest. “You knew Claire was alive.”
Victor’s expression hardened. “Rose was unstable. She intended to hand control of the Shaw trust to a child no one had verified. I protected this family.”
Martin removed a second page from the envelope. Rose had written that Victor discovered her pregnancy and arranged for her to be confined at a private clinic. A nurse helped her escape long enough to give birth, but Victor found them before Rose could reach Evelyn. Claire was placed at St. Anne’s under a false name.
“What happened to Rose?” Claire asked.
Victor looked away.
That silence was more frightening than any answer.
Nathaniel confronted his father. The wedding had been Victor’s idea. He encouraged Nathaniel to marry Claire after learning she had been hired to restore the original Shaw estate.
Under Evelyn’s father’s trust, Rose’s biological daughter would inherit controlling ownership of the hotel company on her thirtieth birthday. Claire was only eighteen months away from claiming it. By marrying her to Nathaniel before her identity became public, Victor planned to keep the fortune under his control.
“You chose her for me because you thought you could control both of us,” Nathaniel said.
Victor’s smile vanished. “Everything you have exists because I made difficult decisions.”
Claire pulled the jade pieces apart and placed one in Evelyn’s hand. “Then let us make one now. The wedding is over.”
She turned toward the guests, but the ballroom lights went out.
In the darkness, someone seized Martin. A struggle followed, then glass shattered. When the emergency lights returned, Martin was on the floor and Rose’s letter was gone.
Victor remained near the altar.
But one security guard had disappeared.
Nathaniel rushed to Martin, who whispered, “The letter was only a copy.”
He reached into his vest and gave Claire a brass key.
“The original evidence is in Rose’s room at the old estate,” he said. “And Claire—your mother may still be alive.”
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Before Claire could ask how he knew, fire alarms rang through the hotel.
Smoke poured from the parking garage, where Victor’s missing guard had taken Rose’s letter.
