Chapter 11 - The Wedding Morning
Vanessa’s wedding morning began with rain.
By ten o’clock, the clouds broke, and warm sunlight filled the Beaumont’s bridal suite.
Vanessa sat before a mirror while stylists arranged her blonde hair. Diane moved through the room issuing instructions. Bridesmaids drank champagne and pretended not to notice the tension.
Emma arrived at eleven wearing the dark blue gown selected for her.
Diane looked her over.
“At least you followed one instruction.”
Emma placed the gift envelope on the table.
“The replacement check.”
Vanessa saw it in the mirror.
“I do not want it.”
“Then leave it.”
Diane picked up the envelope.
“You could have purchased the necklace.”
“No.”
“Today is not the day for selfishness.”
Emma looked at her mother’s reflection.
“Today seems to be built on it.”
Diane’s face hardened.
A bridesmaid coughed into her champagne.
Vanessa stood.
“Everyone out.”
The stylists and bridesmaids exchanged nervous looks before leaving.
Daniel’s sister paused at the door but followed the others.
Vanessa turned toward Emma.
“What did you tell Daniel?”
“Nothing he did not already know.”
“He has been distant for days.”
“Ask him why.”
“I am asking you.”
Emma looked at Diane.
“Should I answer?”
Diane went pale.
Vanessa noticed.
“What is going on?”
Diane moved toward the door.
“You both need to calm down.”
Vanessa blocked her.
“Mom.”
“Not today.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
Emma felt a brief, unexpected sympathy for her sister.
Vanessa was cruel, entitled, and manipulative.
But she was also standing at the edge of a truth everyone else had chosen to conceal.
“Daniel investigated our family before he proposed,” Emma said.
Vanessa turned.
“What?”
“He was looking for records connected to Catherine Bell.”
Diane gripped the back of a chair.
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is Catherine Bell?”
Emma looked at Diane.
Her mother said nothing.
“Ask her,” Emma replied.
Vanessa faced Diane.
“Who is she?”
Diane’s lips trembled.
“This is not the time.”
Vanessa grabbed her arm.
“Who is Catherine?”
“Emma’s biological mother.”
The room went still.
Vanessa slowly released Diane.
Emma watched recognition enter her eyes.
“You knew,” Emma said.
Vanessa looked at her.
“I heard the name. I did not know the details.”
“You told me I never belonged.”
“I was angry.”
“You used the truth as a weapon without understanding it.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Do not pretend you are the only person who suffered in this family.”
Emma almost responded.
Then she saw tears in Vanessa’s eyes.
Real tears.
“Dad always said everything depended on me,” Vanessa continued. “Every dinner, every photograph, every school event. I had to be perfect because you were difficult.”
“Difficult meant independent.”
“I was a child.”
“So was I.”
Neither sister moved.
For one fragile moment, the years between them seemed less like hatred and more like two different prisons built by the same people.
Then Diane stepped forward.
“We can discuss this later.”
Vanessa turned on her.
“Did Daniel know?”
Diane shook her head.
“I do not know.”
“Did Dad know he was investigating us?”
“I do not know.”
Vanessa grabbed her phone.
“I am calling Daniel.”
Diane took the phone from her hand.
“No.”
The speed of the movement surprised them all.
Vanessa stared at her mother.
“Give it back.”
“You cannot speak to him before the ceremony.”
“Why?”
“Because hundreds of people are downstairs.”
Vanessa’s expression changed from shock to disgust.
“That is what you care about?”
Diane lowered her voice.
“If this wedding is canceled, your father’s company will collapse.”
Emma looked sharply at her.
Vanessa froze.
“What does my wedding have to do with his company?”
Diane realized she had said too much.
“Nothing.”
“Mom.”
“Daniel’s family is considering an investment.”
Daniel had never mentioned it.
Emma understood immediately.
The marriage was not merely social.
Richard needed access to Cole International capital.
Vanessa stepped away from her mother.
“Did Dad arrange this?”
“No.”
“Did he encourage Daniel to propose?”
“I said no.”
“But he knew why Daniel was interested in us.”
Diane’s silence answered.
Vanessa’s hands began to shake.
Emma expected her to cry.
Instead, she became very still.
“Leave,” Vanessa said.
Diane blinked.
“Sweetheart.”
“Both of you.”
Emma moved toward the door.
Vanessa called after her.
“Did you pay for everything?”
Emma stopped.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad said he would repay me.”
Vanessa laughed once, bitterly.
“You believed him?”
“I wanted proof.”
“Of what?”
“That he never intended to see me as anything except a resource.”
Vanessa looked down at her wedding dress.
“And me?”
Emma answered honestly.
“I did not know whether you understood what he was doing.”
Vanessa’s eyes lifted.
“Now you do.”
Emma left the suite.
An hour later, the ceremony began.
Vanessa walked down the aisle beside Richard.
She smiled for the guests.
May you like
But when she reached Daniel, she did not look at him with love.
She looked at him like a witness she planned to interrogate.
