Chapter 3: The Missing Forty-Two Thousand
The recording continued as my mother stood frozen between the open doors.
“Claire believes the venue has already been paid,” her recorded voice said.
“If she learns the truth, Daniel’s wedding will be ruined.”
Daniel stopped the message.
“Why did you say my wedding instead of our wedding?”
Mother reached for the phone again.
“Because I was upset.
Give it to me.”
“No,” I said.
“Let it play.”
Mother turned toward me.
“Claire, guests are watching.”
“They watched me throw an innocent woman outside.
They can watch you answer one question.”
The woman placed the sealed envelope in my hands.
“My name is Naomi Bennett.
Your husband invited me personally.”
I looked at Daniel.
“You invited her?”
“Six weeks ago.
I watched her name go onto the guest list.”
Naomi opened a message on her phone.
“Then your mother called and said the invitation had been withdrawn because the reception was for family only.”
Mother shook her head.
“You misunderstood me.”
“You told me to use the side entrance if I came at all,” Naomi replied.
“That is difficult to misunderstand.”
My stomach tightened.
Mother had warned me that strangers might enter from another wedding and spoil our photographs.
“You told me to remove anyone who didn’t match our guest list,” I said.
“I was protecting your day.”
“You removed Naomi’s name first.”
Mother’s mouth opened, but Daniel stepped closer.
“Why did the venue need to be paid twice?” he asked.
“It wasn’t.”
Naomi nodded toward the envelope.
“Open it, Claire.”
Inside were copies of the venue invoice, Naomi’s bank transfer, and a letter from the manager thanking her for paying $31,800.
Behind them was a copy of another transfer.
My hand began to shake.
“Daniel and I gave you forty-two thousand dollars,” I said.
“That was our house deposit.”
Mother lowered her voice.
“Not here.”
“Where is our money?”
“I moved it temporarily.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You told us it had gone to the venue.”
“The venue changed its terms.
I had to rearrange things.”
Naomi held up one finger.
“That is not what you told me.
You said Daniel had secretly used the wedding fund to help his sick father.”
Daniel took a step back.
“My father has never been sick.”
“I believed I was protecting you,” Naomi said.
“Your mother said Claire would leave you if she discovered the money was gone.”
I looked at Mother.
“You made my husband sound like a liar so she would rescue us.”
“I did what was necessary.”
“For whom?”
Mother gripped my wrist.
“You have already embarrassed yourself enough.
Smile, go inside, and finish your wedding.”
I pulled free.
“Where is the forty-two thousand dollars?”
Her face hardened.
“Be very careful, Claire.
You may not like what that answer does to your marriage.”
Naomi took the final page from the envelope and handed it to me.
It was a bank statement.
Our money had entered Mother’s personal account on a Monday morning.
By Monday afternoon, almost all of it had been transferred to a company I had never heard of.
Daniel read the name over my shoulder.
“Silver Oak Investments,” he said.
“What is that?”
A man near the doorway dropped his glass.
My uncle Peter stared at the statement as if it had burned him.
Mother pointed at him.
“Don’t you dare.”
Uncle Peter’s lips trembled.
“Claire, Silver Oak isn’t an investment company.”
“Then what is it?”
May you like
He looked directly at my mother.
“It belongs to the man she told everyone she stopped seeing two years ago.”
