“This ridiculous spectacle has gone far enough.”
“No,” I said.
She frowned.
I reached behind my waist.
Click.
A crystal clasp released.
Victoria froze.
Click.
Another.
The ruined outer panel loosened.
Whispers spread through the ballroom.
Adrian stared.
I released the clasps at my hips.
The crystal-covered outer skirt separated and fell away in my hands.
Beneath it appeared untouched ivory silk.
Gasps filled the room.
I stepped out of the ruined shell.
The second dress caught the chandelier light.
Silver branches climbed the bodice.
Tiny embroidered leaves shimmered along the waist.
My mother’s design.
My mother’s words.
My real wedding dress.
Victoria stared as if she’d seen a ghost.
“You knew,” she whispered.
“I suspected.”
“You set this up.”
“I prepared for you.”
I looked at the destroyed layer lying between us.
“There’s a difference.”
Then Claire stood.
She was holding a folder.
That had not been part of my plan.
“Emma.”
I looked at her.
Her face had gone pale.
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
The way she said it silenced me.
She walked to the altar and handed me the folder.
Inside were photocopies.
Bank transfers.
Emails.
Corporate approvals.
At the bottom was a document bearing an electronic signature.
Adrian Harrington.
My lungs stopped working.
“What is this?”
Adrian moved toward us.
“Claire, where did you get that?”
There it was again.
Not confusion.
Fear.
Claire looked at him.
“Your mother’s assistant gave it to me twenty minutes ago.”
Victoria spun around.
“What?”
A woman in the third row stood.
Margaret Vale.
Victoria’s executive assistant of twenty-three years.
A gray-haired woman so discreet most people barely noticed her at events.
She walked into the aisle.
Victoria stared.
“Sit down.”
Margaret didn’t.
“You ordered me to delete the North Crescent records.”
The ballroom exploded.
Victoria’s face went white.
Margaret continued.
“I kept copies.”
“Margaret—”
“You asked me to schedule payments to the contractor who damaged the buildings.”
“Stop talking.”
“And when Ms. Reyes refused to withdraw her report, you instructed me to find information that could discredit her.”
I stared at Margaret.
She looked almost apologetic.
“But the final authorization for the contractor payments didn’t come from Mrs. Harrington.”
My eyes moved slowly toward Adrian.
Margaret finished.
“It came from Adrian.”
Everything inside me went silent.
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
Margaret held up another folder.
“I have the original server logs.”
“That isn’t what happened.”
“Then tell her what happened.”
Five hundred faces turned toward him.
My future husband.
The man I loved.
The man standing beneath the flowers we’d chosen together.
He closed his eyes.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Adrian removed his boutonnière.
Placed it on the altar.
And said:
“I authorized the payments.”
My father stood.
Claire whispered, “Emma…”
I couldn’t feel my hands.
“Why?”
Adrian looked at me.
“The project was collapsing.”
“What?”
“North Crescent borrowed against three other developments. If the tower didn’t go forward, lenders could call the debt.”
