Chapter 8 - THE WEDDING GUESTS LEARN THE TRUTH
Robert hung up.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Marcus entered the room through a side door.
“I found a way inside.”
I looked at him.
“Robert called me.”
Marcus immediately understood.
“What did he say?”
I told him.
Marcus's expression hardened.
“We need to get out of here.”
My mother nodded.
But before we could move, every phone in the room began ringing.
Mine.
Claire’s.
Marcus’s.
My mother’s.
A video appeared on each screen.
It showed the wedding venue.
The ballroom.
The guests.
My uncle Robert stood at the front of the room.
He was speaking to everyone.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid there will be a slight delay.”
My stomach dropped.
He had taken control of the venue's presentation system.
Then he looked directly into the camera.
“Ethan, if you are watching this, I know you have found the room.”
I stepped closer to the screen.
Robert continued.
“Your father was a weak man. He believed loyalty mattered more than power.”
The video showed photographs of my father.
Then documents.
Then images of Claire and me.
Robert had prepared everything.
He was telling the guests that Claire had manipulated me.
That she had stolen money.
That she had planned to marry me for financial gain.
The room erupted in confusion.
I watched my own wedding guests turn against the woman I had once loved.
Then Robert revealed the final lie.
“He planned to marry her today because he discovered she had been stealing from his family.”
Claire stared at the screen.
“He has the original files.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The files your father gave me.”
“Where?”
She hesitated.
“Inside the envelope.”
The envelope from Daniel.
I remembered the photograph.
The bank document.
There had been something else.
A tiny memory card.
I pulled it from my jacket.
Claire's eyes widened.
“That's it.”
I inserted it into my phone.
A video appeared.
My father sat behind his desk.
He looked exhausted.
He spoke directly into the camera.
“If Robert is showing this to you, then he has taken control of the company.”
My mother began crying.
My father continued.
“Robert did not cause the accident himself.”
I stared at the screen.
“What?”
My father looked toward the camera.
“Daniel did.”
Claire covered her mouth.
My father continued.
“Robert ordered him to disable the brakes.”
The room went silent.
Then my father said:
“But Robert does not know I discovered everything.”
He held up a second memory card.
“I have already sent copies to a federal investigator.”
My heart began pounding.
The video ended.
I looked at Claire.
“Where is the second card?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then Marcus looked toward the door.
“Ethan.”
A black SUV had stopped outside the estate.
Two men stepped out.
Then a third.
One of them held a gun.
My mother moved behind me.
Claire grabbed my arm.
May you like
And I realized the wedding was no longer canceled.
It had become a battlefield.
