Chapter 26: What the Wedding Was Really For
Claire could barely process the truth.
Lily had helped choose the wedding venue.
Months earlier, she had contacted the owner anonymously and paid a deposit through a shell account.
“She planned our wedding?” Claire asked.
“She guided it,” Mara said after being released on bail. “Your choices were real. But she made sure the church was available.”
Thomas Bennett had hidden the original archive beneath the church during its renovation.
Only Claire’s father, Lily, and the former priest knew.
The plastic ring contained the final key.
“That is why Ethan had to give it to Claire,” Lily explained.
“If I kept it, Victoria would take it. If Daniel kept it, she would search him. Claire was the one person Victoria underestimated.”
The innocent proposal had been a transfer.
The sweetest moment of the wedding had also been the final step in a seventeen-year plan.
They returned to the church before sunrise.
Beneath the altar was a narrow lock.
The tiny key opened it.
A mechanical platform lifted from the floor.
Inside were ledgers, recordings, medical evidence, and letters from Thomas Bennett.
Enough to expose Victoria.
Enough to restore the stolen trusts.
Enough to destroy several powerful people.
Daniel’s attorney began copying everything.
Then Claire found a sealed envelope bearing her name.
Inside was a letter from her father.
Claire, the greatest danger will not come from Victoria. It will come from the person who appears to help you defeat her.
Claire looked around the church.
Daniel.
Lily.
Mara.
Sarah.
Owen’s attorney.
All had helped them.
Her father had written one more line.
Do not give the archive to the man who claims to be Ethan’s father.
At that moment, Owen entered the church.
May you like
He had left the hospital against medical advice.
And he was not alone.
