CHAPTER 2: The Threat Behind the Wedding
Grace Harrington met Isabella for the first time at the family mansion.
She was polite.
Too polite.
She complimented Isabella’s dress, her gentle voice, and her charity work as “noble.” But in every sentence, Isabella could feel a thin layer of ice.
“Where do you come from?” Grace asked during tea.
“My mother passed away early. I grew up with my aunt,” Isabella answered.
“An ordinary family?”
“Yes.”
“No major assets?”
Isabella paused.
Adrian immediately put down his teacup.
“Mother.”
Grace smiled.
“I’m only asking so I can understand my future daughter-in-law.”
After that meeting, Adrian apologized to Isabella many times. But she only smiled.
“It’s okay. I understand that your mother is worried about you.”
Adrian held her hand.
“Don’t let my mother make you feel unworthy.”
Isabella said nothing.
She was used to the feeling of having to prove that she was worthy.
The real problem began when Grace discovered Lily.
One morning, she came to Starlight Home without notice. When Isabella was drawing with the children, Lily ran over and hugged her from behind, calling out loudly:
“Mommy!”
The atmosphere immediately changed.
Grace stood at the door, her eyes sharp and cold.
After the children went into class, she asked to speak with Isabella privately.
“What did that child call you?” she asked.
Isabella tried to remain calm.
“She lacks affection. I have cared for her since she came here.”
“I asked what she called you.”
“Mommy.”
Grace stared at her for a long time.
“Does Adrian know?”
“He knows Lily is very close to me.”
“But he does not know the child calls you mommy.”
Isabella fell silent.
Grace gave a faint smile.
“Do you understand what this will look like in front of the guests? The bride of the Harrington family having a child of unclear background running after her and calling her mother?”
“Lily is not something anyone should be ashamed of,” Isabella said, her voice trembling but firm.
“Not in your world. But in ours, everything has consequences.”
Isabella clenched her hands.
“I will tell Adrian.”
“No.” Grace’s voice turned cold. “You will not.”
Isabella froze.
Grace placed a folder on the table. It contained the sponsorship documents for Starlight Home. The money promised by the Harrington Foundation was enough to repair the entire building, pay the staff for two years, and take in ten more children.
“Do you know how much debt this place is in?” Grace asked. “Do you know that if this sponsorship is withdrawn, the children’s home will have to close within three months?”
Isabella’s face turned pale.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I am giving you a choice.” Grace stood up. “Marry Adrian, become a proper wife of the Harrington family, and end this nonsense of letting that child call you mommy. Or keep your foolish kindness and watch this place collapse.”
Isabella could hardly breathe.
“Adrian would never agree to this.”
“Adrian will do what is best for the family if he thinks clearly. But you are different. You can make him soft. And I will not allow that.”
Grace walked toward the door, then stopped.
“After the wedding, that child will be transferred to another facility. Far from the city. Better for her. And better for you.”
Isabella shot to her feet.
“No! Lily has already been abandoned once. I will not let her be abandoned again.”
Grace turned back, her gaze icy.
“Then you should ask yourself: do you save one child, or do you save the entire home?”
That night, Isabella sat alone in the small office until late.
On the desk was the children’s home’s expense list. Roof repairs. Medicine. School fees. Food. Electricity. Water. Every number pressed against her chest like a stone.
If she fought Grace, not only Lily would be affected. All the other children could lose their home too.
But if she stayed silent, Lily would lose her.
Isabella tried to call Adrian many times.
She opened her phone, stared at his name glowing on the screen, then turned it off again.
She knew Adrian loved her. She knew he was not cruel. But she also knew he was trapped between her and his mother, between love and family duty.
And deep down, Isabella was afraid.
Afraid Adrian would ask the same question Grace had asked:
“What is that child to you?”
Afraid he would look at her differently.
Afraid he would think she had deceived him.
Afraid her fragile happiness would shatter before it even began.
In the days that followed, Isabella tried to keep everything the same.
She still went to the children’s home. Still held Lily. Still read stories to her. But every time Lily asked:
“Mommy, after you marry Uncle Adrian, will you still come back here?”
Isabella’s heart ached.
“I will,” she said.
“Every day?”
Isabella swallowed hard.
“I’ll try.”
Lily looked at her for a long time, as if the child could sense something was changing.
“Is someone taking you away from me?”
Isabella hugged her tightly.
“No one can take me away from you.”
But she said that promise through tears.
One week before the wedding, Grace sent people to Starlight Home to begin the process of transferring Lily.
The reason written in the documents was “arranging a more suitable environment.”
Isabella nearly lost her mind when she found out. She rushed to the Harrington mansion to confront Grace.
“You promised you wouldn’t do this until after the wedding!”
Grace calmly arranged flowers in the living room.
“I changed my mind. That child is too attached to you. If she appears at the wedding, everything will become chaotic.”
“You have no right!”
“I have control over the sponsorship. I have control over my family’s reputation. And I have the right to protect my son from a marriage full of complications.”
Isabella stared at her with red eyes.
“Adrian is not an object for you to protect by hurting other people.”
For the first time, Grace’s smile disappeared.
“You think you understand him better than I do?”
“I think you have never asked what he truly wants.”
That sentence silenced the room.
Grace stepped closer to Isabella.
“Listen carefully. If you tell Adrian before the wedding, I will withdraw the entire sponsorship from the children’s home. Not a single dollar. Not a single explanation. You will be the reason more than twenty children lose their shelter.”
Isabella stood frozen.
Grace continued:
“You want to be a mother to one child? Then learn how to sacrifice.”
Isabella left the mansion in the rain.
She did not know that behind the door of the study on the second floor, Adrian had heard part of the conversation.
Not enough to understand everything.
But enough to make him suspicious.
From that day on, Adrian noticed that Isabella changed. She smiled less. When he asked about the wedding, she often avoided the topic. When he mentioned the children’s home, her eyes turned red.
One time, he held her hand and asked:
“Is there something you haven’t told me?”
Isabella looked at him for a long time.
Just one sentence, and everything could have been different.
But then the faces of the children at the home appeared in her mind. She thought of Lily, of the old rooms, of the debt papers on the desk.
She pulled her hand away.
“Nothing. I’m just stressed because of the wedding.”
Adrian did not believe her.
But he did not force her.
Instead, he secretly had someone investigate all the sponsorship documents under his mother’s control. He discovered that several payments had been held back under the reason of “unfinished conditions.” The strange thing was that those conditions were not included in the original agreement.
Then he went to Starlight Home one afternoon when Isabella was not there.
Lily was sitting alone on the front step, hugging her teddy bear.
Adrian sat down beside her.
“Why aren’t you playing with the others today?”
Lily looked at him with sad eyes.
“I’m going far away soon.”
Adrian stiffened.
“Who told you that?”
“The pretty-dressed lady. She said I’m not allowed to call Mommy that anymore. Because Mommy is going to become a bride.”
Adrian’s heart sank.
“What else did she say?”
Lily lowered her head.
“She said if I’m good, I shouldn’t make Mommy cry. But I don’t want to go. I only have Mommy.”
Adrian sat silently for a long time.
Every piece of the puzzle in his mind began to connect.
That night, Adrian confronted his mother.
“Who is Lily?”
Grace placed her teacup down.
“A child from the home. She has nothing to do with you.”
“Then why do you want to transfer her away?”
Grace’s eyes shifted slightly.
“Because I don’t want your wedding to become a joke.”
“A joke?” Adrian repeated. “A child calling Isabella mommy embarrasses you that much?”
“You don’t understand how important reputation is.”
“I understand.” Adrian looked at her. “I just don’t understand when reputation became more important than humanity.”
Grace stood up.
“I am doing all of this for you.”
“No.” Adrian’s voice turned cold. “You are doing it because you are afraid of losing control.”
It was the first time in many years that Adrian had spoken to his mother in that tone.
Grace looked at him, both angry and hurt.
“You are going to cancel your wedding because of a strange child?”
Adrian did not answer immediately.
He only said:
May you like
“I am going to know the whole truth before I walk into that wedding hall.”
But before the truth could be fully spoken, the wedding day arrived.
