Chapter 7: The Wedding Guests Heard Everything
The woman introduced herself as Grace Nolan, a financial investigator who had been meeting Graham nearby when he received my call.
“I’m not answering questions,” Alexis said.
“You don’t have to,” Grace replied.
“But the venue has preserved the recording, and the bank has frozen the receiving account.”
Victor stepped between them.
“My attorney will deal with this.”
“Then call your attorney.”
He turned to me instead.
“Susan, think carefully.
Caleb’s messages connect him to the transfer.
If you continue, your son could lose more than a wedding.”
Caleb went pale.
Alexis moved beside her father.
“He gave me the password and told me to get it done.
I won’t protect him if you make this official.”
For one terrible moment, neither Caleb nor I spoke.
Victor lowered his voice.
“Restore the event, withdraw your complaint, and everyone walks away.”
Caleb looked at the half-dismantled floral arch.
“Mom, if they say I helped—”
Grace raised a hand.
“Do not let anyone pressure you into changing your account.”
“I’m not pressuring her,” Victor said.
“I’m offering mercy.”
“Mercy would be returning all eighteen thousand,” I replied.
“And risking your son’s future?”
Caleb took his phone from his pocket.
His hand shook as he unlocked it.
“What are you doing?” Alexis demanded.
“What I should have done when you told my mother to leave.”
He handed the phone to Grace.
“There are messages from Alexis and Victor,” he said.
“I didn’t understand all of them then, but I do now.”
Alexis grabbed for the phone.
Grace moved it out of reach.
“You weak little coward,” Alexis hissed.
“You’ll blame your own fiancée to save yourself?”
“No.
I’ll tell the truth, even if it costs me.”
Victor pointed toward the driveway.
“Alexis, get in the car.”
Marianne blocked his path.
“You did this to Mother too, didn’t you?”
“Move.”
“You told her the money was for your business.
She lost forty-two thousand dollars.”
“That was a family loan.”
“She asked for it back for five years.”
Grace looked at Marianne.
“Do you have records?”
“I have every letter she sent him.
I kept them after she passed.”
Victor’s composure finally cracked.
“Those letters prove nothing.”
“They prove she never gave you the money.”
Alexis tore the phone from her bouquet and ran toward the fountain.
Naomi caught her wrist before she could drop it into the water.
“Let go of me!”
“The phone is venue evidence now,” Naomi said.
“You’re a wedding planner, not a police officer.”
“No, but the security officer beside you is.”
A uniformed guard took the phone and sealed it in a clear evidence pouch.
Victor pulled a checkbook from his jacket.
“Susan, name a figure.”
The guests fell silent again.
“You think this is still about a figure?”
“Everyone has a number.”
“My number was sixty-five thousand.
That was what I was willing to spend to welcome your daughter into my family.”
He held out his pen.
“And now?”
“Now I want every dollar returned, every false document preserved, and every person here to remember that you tried to buy my silence.”
Grace’s phone rang.
She listened, then looked from Victor to Alexis.
“The bank found two more deposits into Aster Events,” she said.
“Both came from families who were promised weddings.”
Alexis’s shoulders dropped.
May you like
Grace opened the evidence pouch just enough to switch off the ringing phone inside.
“One of those families is outside the gate.”
