Chapter 9 - The Vanishing Bride
The darkness lasted eleven seconds.
When the lights returned, Julian Beaumont was on the floor with an agent’s knee against his back.
Vivian had been restrained near the front row.
Two of Julian’s operatives were captured.
Three others had disappeared.
And Celeste was gone.
Adrian searched the ballroom.
Her veil lay beside the altar.
A streak of blood marked one edge.
“Celeste!” he shouted.
No answer.
Agent Mara Torres ordered the hotel sealed.
Guests were instructed to remain inside while officers searched every floor.
Lily stood near the broken ceremonial tray, shaking.
Adrian wrapped his jacket around her shoulders.
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see anyone near her when the lights went out?”
Lily closed her eyes, trying to remember.
“There was a smell.”
“What kind?”
“Flowers. Not the white ones. Something sweet.”
Vivian wore a gardenia perfume.
But she had been visible when the lights returned.
Adrian looked toward the side passage.
Celeste might have been taken through it.
Daniel approached, holding a handkerchief against his bleeding lip.
“Torres found Hannah.”
Lily’s face lifted.
“Where?”
“In a locked refrigeration storage room.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. Unconscious, but alive.”
Lily ran toward the agents.
Adrian followed her to the hotel clinic.
Hannah lay on a narrow bed beneath blankets. A paramedic checked her blood pressure.
Lily climbed beside her.
“Mom?”
Hannah’s eyes opened slowly.
She touched Lily’s face.
“You’re safe.”
“So are you.”
Hannah tried to sit up.
“The wedding.”
“It stopped.”
“The glass?”
“I knocked it away.”
Hannah closed her eyes in relief.
Then she saw Adrian.
“Mr. Vale.”
“Adrian.”
She looked around.
“Where is Celeste?”
“Missing.”
Hannah’s face changed.
“The woman in blue said something before Julian found us.”
“Elena?”
“She was barely conscious. She told me the bride was not the target.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What did she mean?”
“I don’t know. Julian entered before she could explain.”
“Where is Elena now?”
Hannah looked confused.
“Wasn’t she found?”
Agent Torres, standing in the doorway, shook her head.
“The blue room was empty.”
“She was there,” Hannah insisted. “Injured.”
“We found blood matching an unknown female, but no body.”
Hannah gripped the blanket.
“Then Julian moved her.”
Torres looked at Adrian.
“We need to discuss the encrypted file.”
Adrian followed her into the corridor.
Daniel joined them.
Torres held Elena’s phone inside an evidence bag.
“The device contains extensive documentation, but the file identifying the insider is locked.”
“The password concerns someone my father betrayed,” Adrian said.
“Do you know who?”
“No.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“Richard Vale had many enemies.”
Adrian glanced at him.
“You worked for my father before you worked for me.”
“As a junior analyst.”
“Did you know Julian Beaumont?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Torres noticed.
“So did Adrian,” she said. “And he lost an hour of memory this morning.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“You think I drugged him?”
“I think someone inside Vale Holdings gave the Beaumonts access.”
Adrian looked at his oldest friend.
Daniel met his gaze.
“If I wanted control of the company, I’ve had easier opportunities.”
“That isn’t a denial.”
“No. It’s an observation.”
A nurse called from the clinic.
Hannah had remembered something.
They entered.
She held out the sugar plaque from the wedding cake.
CHECK THE FLOWER GIRL’S PHONE had been smeared.
Beneath it, another message had been scratched into the hardened sugar.
Four numbers.
1 9 9 8.
“I didn’t write that,” Hannah said.
Adrian stared.
The year 1998 was when Richard Vale and Julian Beaumont first became business partners.
Torres entered it as a password.
The encrypted file opened.
One photograph appeared.
It showed Richard Vale standing on a dock at night beside Julian Beaumont and a third man.
The third man’s face was partly hidden.
May you like
But Adrian recognized the signet ring on his hand.
Daniel wore the same ring.
