CHAPTER 2: The Bride’s Final Lie
Three months after the canceled wedding, Victoria Hale appeared on television.
She wore a simple gray dress instead of designer couture. Her makeup was restrained, her voice trembled at carefully chosen moments, and her attorney sat beside her with a sympathetic expression.
“I take responsibility for losing my temper,” Victoria told the interviewer. “But the public never saw what happened before that video began.”
Daniel watched the interview from his mother’s library.
Eleanor sat across from him, calmly drinking tea.
On the television, Victoria wiped away a tear.
“She threatened me,” Victoria continued. “She told me Daniel would never marry me because I wasn’t good enough for their family. I panicked. What I did was wrong, but I was being emotionally attacked.”
Daniel stared at the screen in disbelief.
“That never happened.”
“I know,” Eleanor replied.
Victoria claimed the security footage had been edited to protect the Mercer family.
She accused Eleanor of using her wealth to destroy her career, isolate her from friends, and force companies to cancel their contracts.
By the end of the interview, thousands of people online were calling Victoria a victim.
Daniel reached for his phone.
“I’m releasing the entire recording.”
Eleanor stopped him.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because she wants you angry. Angry people make careless decisions.”
Eleanor opened a folder on the table.
Inside were bank records, property documents, and photographs of Victoria meeting privately with a man Daniel recognized immediately.
It was Charles Wynn, the chief financial officer of Reed International.
“What is this?” Daniel asked.
“Victoria wasn’t simply planning a wedding,” Eleanor said. “She was planning her entrance into this company.”
Daniel looked through the documents.
Months before the ceremony, Victoria had secretly contacted Charles. Together, they had discussed transferring company assets into shell corporations after Daniel inherited his father’s voting shares.
Victoria had expected Daniel to sign several documents during their honeymoon, believing they were related to their new home.
Instead, the documents would have given Charles control over nearly two billion dollars in company assets.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“She never wanted me.”
“She may have wanted you,” Eleanor said quietly. “But she wanted what came with you even more.”
A phone suddenly rang inside the library.
It was Eleanor’s private line.
Only five people had the number.
She answered.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then her expression changed.
“What happened?”
Daniel stood.
Eleanor slowly placed the phone down.
“Charles Wynn has disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“He emptied one of the company’s emergency accounts forty minutes ago.”
“How much?”
“Thirty-seven million dollars.”
Daniel looked again at Victoria’s smiling face on the television.
The interview was not an attempt to repair her reputation.
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It was a distraction.
And by the time Daniel understood that, Victoria was already on her way to the airport.
