Chapter 4: Seventeen Unanswered Calls
Ethan ended the call and faced Vanessa.
“You filed forged papers before we said our vows.”
“You signed them,” Vanessa replied.
“Oliver’s confession is the performance of a frightened man.”
“He just admitted what he did in front of two hundred witnesses.”
“And half of them are my family.”
Nora raised the tablet.
“The cameras are not related to either family.”
Margaret took Vanessa’s arm.
“We’re leaving.
Our solicitor will handle this.”
Ethan blocked their path.
“Not without the envelope.”
Vanessa opened her bridal purse and dropped a cream envelope onto the table.
Emily tore it open.
There was nothing inside.
Vanessa smiled.
“Perhaps your father had nothing left to say.”
Emily’s knees struck the chair behind her.
Ethan caught her elbow, but she pulled away.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Emily, I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“You could have come to me.”
“I called you seventeen times the week Dad went into the hospital.”
Ethan’s mouth opened, but no answer came.
Emily took out her phone and found the call history.
One unanswered call followed another, each marked with Ethan’s name.
“You sent one message,” she said.
“‘Stop using Dad to ruin my wedding.’”
“I never wrote that.”
“But you believed it sounded like something I deserved to hear.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“I let her answer for me.”
“You let her erase me.”
Her voice broke on the final word.
She pressed both hands to her mouth and turned toward the service corridor.
Ethan followed but stopped several feet away.
“I missed Dad’s last clear week, didn’t I?”
Emily wiped her face.
“He kept asking why his son was angry with him.”
“Was he?”
“No.
That was the worst part.
He defended you until he couldn’t speak.”
Ethan braced one hand against the wall.
“I chose a wedding schedule over my father.”
“You chose the version of me Vanessa gave you,” Emily said.
“And when I tried to tell you the truth, you called it jealousy.”
“I did.”
The simple admission made Emily’s shoulders shake.
Nora came from the ballroom carrying a clean jacket and placed it around her.
“You don’t have to stand in that ruined uniform,” Nora said.
Emily looked at the banquet manager.
“After what happened, you could have asked me to leave.”
“I saw you protecting your brother’s wedding while his bride was humiliating you.
You’re not the person who should leave.”
Ethan held out his hand, palm upward.
“I cannot repair seventeen calls tonight.
But please don’t face the eighteenth alone.”
Emily looked at his hand before taking it.
Nora’s radio crackled.
“The bridal suite has been cleared,” a staff member said.
“But we found this inside the waste bin.”
He brought out torn strips of paper sealed in a clear bag.
Emily recognized her father’s handwriting.
“The letter,” she whispered.
Oliver knelt beside the table and aligned two pieces without touching them.
“This line says ‘duplicate lodged with Helen Marsh.’”
“Dad’s nurse,” Emily said.
“She cared for him at home.”
Ethan called Helen and put the phone on speaker.
“Emily?” an older woman answered.
“It’s Ethan.
Dad mentioned a duplicate letter.”
There was a long pause.
“He told me to give it to both of you together,” Helen said.
“He also left a recording.”
“Can you bring it?”
“I can, but you need to hear this first.
Your father discovered money leaving the company months ago.”
“Who took it?” Ethan asked.
“I never saw a name.
He only said the person would try to use your marriage as a shield.”
Ethan’s phone lit up with another call from the bank attorney.
“Mr.
Cole, the transfer has been accepted,” the attorney said.
“Vanessa now holds your voting proxy, and she has called an emergency board meeting for nine tomorrow morning.”
“What is she asking the board to do?”
May you like
The attorney exhaled.
“She intends to remove you as chief executive.”
