Chapter 5
I had never run so fast in my life.
“Raymond!”
He looked over his shoulder.
Then slammed the records-room door.
Security was ten steps behind me.
Martin grabbed my arm.
“Don't go in alone.”
I ignored him.
I knew that room.
There was no second exit.
Security reached us.
One guard unlocked the door with a master key.
We entered together.
Raymond stood beside an open filing cabinet.
Several folders were scattered across the floor.
In his hand was a small portable drive.
He smiled.
“Glenn.”
I wanted to hit him.
Every instinct in my body demanded it.
Instead, I looked at the security camera in the corner.
Then at the guards.
“Step away from the cabinet.”
Raymond laughed.
“You always were dramatic.”
“You haven't seen dramatic yet.”
One guard moved toward him.
Raymond raised both hands.
“Relax. I'm family.”
“No,” I said.
“You abandoned your family.”
His smile faded.
The guard took the drive from his hand.
Martin entered behind us.
“What did he access?”
I inspected the cabinet.
Financial records.
Vendor agreements.
Property documents.
Employee files.
“Why are you here, Raymond?”
He shrugged.
“Looking for Sabrina.”
“In a locked records room?”
“I took the wrong door.”
“With a flash drive?”
His eyes shifted.
Just once.
Enough.
The fire alarm suddenly stopped.
False alarm confirmed.
Guests began returning to the ballroom.
A police officer assigned to event security appeared in the hallway.
Martin spoke to him quietly.
Raymond's confidence disappeared when the officer asked for identification.
“This is ridiculous,” Raymond snapped. “I'm the bride's father.”
The words cut me.
But not the way they would have the day before.
Biology was a fact.
Fatherhood was behavior.
I finally understood that.
“Escort him out of the records area,” I said.
Raymond stared at me.
“You think you can humiliate me?”
“This isn't humiliation.”
I pointed toward the folders.
“This is documentation.”
His face changed.
He knew I knew something.
“How much?”
He narrowed his eyes.
“What?”
“How much money have you taken from Victoria?”
Martin touched my shoulder.
“Glenn.”
But Raymond smiled again.
“Ask your wife.”
“I will.”
“Maybe she was tired of supporting a man who smells like thread and steam.”
My fists tightened.
He wanted violence.
One shove.
One punch.
Then he could become the victim.
I stepped backward.
“You're not worth losing my freedom.”
His smile vanished.
The officer escorted him away.
When I returned to my office, Victoria was already there.
She was screaming at Sabrina.
“What have you told him?”
Sabrina flinched.
I closed the door.
Victoria spun.
“You.”
“Yes.”
She pointed at me.
“You're ruining our daughter's wedding.”
“No. You are.”
“How dare you?”
I almost admired the performance.
She looked offended.
Injured.
As if I had been the one secretly stealing money.
Martin placed several documents on my desk.
Victoria saw them.
Her expression changed.
“What is that?”
“Bank records.”
Silence.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“Then stand.”
She looked toward Sabrina.
“Whatever he told you is a lie.”
Sabrina began crying again.
“Did you forge his signature?”
Victoria froze.
“Who said that?”
“I saw you practicing it.”
“You misunderstood.”
“Did you?”
“I handle paperwork for this family!”
I laughed.
It escaped before I could stop it.
“You handle fraud now?”
Her face turned red.
“Don't accuse me.”
“Seventy-eight thousand dollars is missing.”
She stopped.
Logan stared at her.
Diane stood near the door, arms crossed.
Victoria looked around the room and realized she had no allies.
“That's marital money.”
“Some of it came from my business trust.”
Her mouth closed.
“Money you had no authority to touch.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
No answer.
“Raymond's imaginary investments?”
Her eyes flashed.
“Raymond knows more about money than you ever will.”
That sentence was almost funny.
Martin slid a printed record toward her.
“Then perhaps Raymond can explain his prior fraud lawsuits.”
Victoria stared at the page.
“What?”
“Three civil claims.”
“He told me those were business disputes.”
“Did he tell you his investment company has no active investment license?”
Her lips parted.
“No.”
“Did he tell you he collected fifty thousand dollars from Logan yesterday using forged documents?”
Victoria turned toward Raymond's future son-in-law.
Logan's expression was icy.
“What?”
I watched her carefully.
That surprise looked real.
“You didn't know?” I asked.
“No.”
For the first time, fear entered her face.
“He wouldn't…”
Sabrina laughed through tears.
“That's exactly what I said about you.”
The cruelty of the sentence silenced the room.
Victoria looked at her daughter.
“Sabrina.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
Victoria went completely still.
I felt the answer before she gave it.
Sabrina did too.
“Oh my God.”
“It wasn't like that.”
Sabrina stepped backward.
“Then what was it like?”
Victoria began crying.
“It happened recently.”
I felt strangely numb.
Not because it didn't hurt.
Because too many wounds had arrived at once.
My heart had stopped deciding which one deserved attention.
“How long?” I asked.
“Glenn…”
“How long?”
“Three months.”
Twenty-seven years ended inside four words.
Sabrina sank into a chair.
“You were going to leave Dad for him?”
Victoria wiped her eyes.
“I thought Raymond had changed.”
“Were you going to mortgage the house?”
No answer.
“Mom!”
“Yes!”
Sabrina recoiled.
Victoria rushed toward her.
“But it was for us.”
“No.”
“Yes. Raymond said we could start over.”
“With Dad's money.”
“Our money.”
I finally interrupted.
“No.”
Victoria looked at me.
“My business was inherited before our marriage and later placed in trust. Bayfront Pavilion was acquired through that trust. The house was purchased with trust proceeds.”
Her face slowly drained.
“You don't own what you thought you owned.”
She stared at me.
“You're lying.”
Martin spoke.
“He isn't.”
Victoria grabbed the back of a chair.
For the first time in our marriage, I watched her realize that manipulation had limits.
“You can't throw me out.”
“No one said that.”
“You can't leave me with nothing.”
“I haven't said that either.”
Her breathing became ragged.
“Then what are you doing?”
I looked at Sabrina.
At Logan.
At the clock.
Guests were seated again.
Musicians were waiting.
Flowers filled the hall.
A wedding remained possible.
But not the wedding planned yesterday.
“That depends on Sabrina.”
Everyone looked at her.
She stared at her ruined makeup.
Her mother.
Then Logan.
“Do you still want to marry me?”
Logan's face broke my heart.
“I don't know.”
She nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
He swallowed.
“I love you.”
She began sobbing.
“But I don't know whether I can trust you.”
“I understand.”
“The wedding can't happen today.”
Victoria gasped.
“No!”
Sabrina looked at her.
“This is because of you.”
“No, sweetheart—”
“And because of me.”
That surprised me.
Sabrina turned toward the ballroom doors.
“I became someone I hate.”
She looked at me.
“I chose a man who abandoned me over the man who raised me because I wanted to impress people who already loved me.”
Tears ran down her face.
“I don't deserve to walk down that aisle today.”
I said nothing.
She took off her veil.
Then the ballroom doors opened.
A coordinator stepped inside.
“Ms. Mercer?”
Sabrina wiped her cheeks.
“Yes?”
“There's another problem.”
“What now?”
She hesitated.
“Mr. Ellis is gone.”
Martin frowned.
“He was with the officer.”
“He slipped out during the evacuation.”
My stomach dropped.
The coordinator continued.
“And Mrs. Mercer…”
She looked at Victoria.
“Your Mercedes is missing.”
Victoria rushed to the window.
“No.”
She checked her handbag.
Then froze.
“My keys.”
Her purse had been left near Raymond during the rehearsal.
She searched frantically.
“My wallet.”
Gone.
Her phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
Then screamed.
Every cent from the private account she had hidden from me had just been transferred out.
May you like
Raymond had taken everything she stole from me.
And disappeared.
