Chapter 10 - The Wedding That Stopped
The ballroom doors were locked before any guest could leave.
Daniel ordered the security team to search every room.
Lucas ran toward the service corridor after finding a small cream ribbon caught on the door handle. It matched Ellie’s dress.
The corridor led to the loading area behind the estate.
A black SUV was pulling away.
Lucas reached the pavement as Daniel’s investigators blocked the exit with another vehicle.
The SUV stopped.
Its rear door opened.
Rebecca stepped out with Ellie.
Lucas nearly collided with them as he pulled his daughter close.
“What happened?”
Ellie spoke before Rebecca could.
“A man dressed like a waiter said Aunt Claire wanted me. Rebecca stopped him.”
The false waiter had escaped through the garden, but security cameras captured his face.
Daniel identified him as an Ashford employee.
Vanessa had not been trying to take Ellie herself. She had arranged several backup plans, each designed to move the child to Ashford before midnight.
Lucas carried Ellie inside.
Vanessa was sitting in the hallway under guard. Her veil had been removed, and the torn gown pooled around her like discarded wrapping paper.
When she saw Ellie, disappointment crossed her face.
Lucas stopped in front of her.
“Tell me where Mara is.”
Vanessa looked toward the guests.
“Not here.”
“You no longer control where this conversation happens.”
She leaned back against the wall.
“Then you’ll never find her.”
Daniel connected the flash drive to an isolated computer.
Most of its files were encrypted, but one video opened without a password.
The recording showed a dim medical room.
A woman sat in a chair facing away from the camera. Her dark hair fell to her shoulders. A hospital bracelet circled one wrist.
A man’s voice asked her to state her name.
“Mara Hale,” she answered.
Lucas gripped the edge of the table.
The voice was unmistakable.
The date in the corner showed that the video had been recorded eight days earlier.
The interviewer asked another question.
“Do you surrender custody of Eleanor Hale?”
Mara’s shoulders shook.
“No.”
A hand entered the frame and placed a photograph of Ellie on the table.
The interviewer repeated the question.
Mara whispered, “No.”
The recording ended.
Ellie looked at the screen.
“That’s Mommy.”
Lucas knelt in front of her.
He could not tell whether hope or terror was stronger in his chest.
“It sounds like her.”
“It is her.”
Vanessa laughed quietly from the hallway.
“You spent five years teaching her that her mother was dead. Now you’re afraid to tell her she was alive the entire time.”
Lucas turned toward her.
“What did you do to Mara?”
“Nothing she didn’t bring upon herself.”
Claire stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
Vanessa looked at Claire with open hatred.
“Mara tried to expose our mother. She stole records, money, and identities. She planned to disappear with Ellie.”
“Why would she disappear?” Lucas asked.
“To protect the child from the Hale family.”
Lucas stared at her.
“From me?”
Vanessa’s expression changed again.
“Not everything is about you.”
Daniel’s computer produced a notification.
One encrypted folder had partially opened.
Inside were payment records from Hale Industries to Ashford Behavioral Center, beginning six months before Mara’s accident and continuing every month afterward.
The payments had been authorized by a Hale executive account.
Lucas’s account.
He had never approved them.
Then Daniel found the location attached to the recent video.
It did not lead to Ashford.
It led to the abandoned house on Bellweather Road, the same house in Rebecca’s photograph.
A final file opened.
It contained a live camera feed.
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Mara was sitting in the room at that exact moment.
Behind her, someone entered carrying a container of gasoline.
