Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE DRESS
Isabella’s lips trembled.
“Melissa,” she whispered, “there’s a reason Ryan needed you out of that
house before midnight.”
Adrian stepped between his sister and the ballroom. “Tell me.”
Isabella looked at the guests, then at the security guards. “He told me
Melissa had left him. He said they had been separated for two years and
that she had abandoned Ellie. He showed me a divorce decree.”
I stared at her. “There is no divorce decree.”
“I know that now.”
“Then why did you marry him?”
“Because I believed him. And because I was afraid of what he would do if
I walked away.”
Ryan moved toward her. “Isabella, don’t.”
Ellie pressed closer to my side. Adrian noticed and stepped into Ryan’s
path.
“Take one more step toward them,” Adrian said, “and you’ll spend the
night somewhere you cannot reach either of them.”
Ryan stopped.
Isabella pulled a folded envelope from her bouquet. “He asked me to keep
this until after the ceremony. I opened it when Melissa told you she was
still married to him.”
Inside were bank transfer instructions, a deed, and a document bearing
my name. My signature looked convincing, but I had never signed it.
The deed transferred our house to a company called Northstar Residential
Holdings. The bank instructions authorized a transfer of nearly three
million dollars from a construction escrow account. The final page was
an affidavit stating that I had voluntarily left my family home and
surrendered any claim to the property.
The effective time was 11:59 p.m.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“Ryan said he needed you away from the house while the transfer went
through,” Isabella replied. “After midnight, you would have no claim to
the property, and the money would be somewhere nobody could trace.”
Ryan shook his head. “Those are business documents. You don’t understand
them.”
Adrian studied the pages. “This escrow account belongs to a company that
has a contract with my family.”
His security chief, Daniel, checked the account number. “Boss, it
matches the Castellano redevelopment project.”
Adrian looked at Ryan. “You’ve been moving my money?”
“I manage subcontractors,” Ryan said quickly. “I have authority.”
“Not to transfer three million dollars into a company registered six
weeks ago.”
Isabella began to cry. “He told me it was part of the merger. He said
the company would be ours after the wedding.”
I held Ellie tighter.
Ryan looked at me. “Melissa, don’t make this worse.”
I had heard those words for sixteen years. They used to make me
apologize.
Not tonight.
“What did you plan to do to us?” I asked.
His jaw tightened.
Adrian took the papers from Daniel. “We’ll find out. First, nobody
leaves with that child except her mother.”
Ryan’s eyes moved toward the ballroom exit.
For the first time, I understood that he wasn’t afraid of losing his
May you like
bride.
He was afraid of losing his escape.
