Chapter 7 - The Bride Changed Sides
Sophie did not cry.
She became organized.
Within fifteen minutes, she had requested copies of every wedding invoice.
She called her father.
Then the florist.
Then the planner.
Then the hotel accounting department.
Lucas watched her move through the disaster with the expression of a man realizing that tomorrow might no longer contain a wedding.
Finally, he asked.
“Are you leaving me?”
Sophie lowered her phone.
“I don’t know.”
He flinched.
She continued.
“I believe you didn’t know about Emily’s trust at first.”
“At first?”
Her words landed hard.
“You knew your mother was paying bills your company could not afford.”
Lucas said nothing.
“You never asked where the money came from.”
“I thought it was family money.”
Sophie shook her head.
“That phrase has done a lot of work tonight.”
Lucas looked down.
I wanted to defend him.
I did not.
Sophie deserved the truth without another Bennett family member trying to soften it.
My mother returned twenty minutes later.
She entered as if nothing had happened.
“I have spoken to the planner.”
Everyone stared at her.
“The ceremony proceeds tomorrow at four.”
Sophie almost laughed.
“You think that’s your decision?”
My mother’s expression sharpened.
“Hundreds of guests are coming.”
“My parents have spent thousands.”
“So have we.”
Sophie looked at me.
“Apparently Emily spent more.”
My mother ignored that.
“This family will not become a public spectacle because Emily suddenly decided to investigate old financial arrangements.”
Alexander finally spoke.
“Old?”
He showed her the authorization Sophie had found.
“This was created six months ago.”
My mother’s face shifted.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Alexander continued.
“And you used Emily’s married surname on a document dated two years before the marriage.”
Aunt Marlene whispered something.
My mother turned on her.
“Stop talking.”
Marlene stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She wiped tears from her face.
“You keep telling everyone to stop talking.”
“Maybe that’s how we got here.”
My mother’s voice became dangerous.
“Marlene.”
My aunt opened her purse.
For a moment, I thought she was leaving.
Instead, she removed an old phone.
“I kept the messages.”
My mother went still.
“What messages?”
“The ones you sent me when you asked me to notarize the loan.”
Lucas stepped forward.
“You said you didn’t remember.”
Marlene looked ashamed.
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother paid off my mortgage.”
My father closed his eyes.
Marlene unlocked the phone.
“She told me Emily would never discover any of it.”
“She said the trust was practically hers anyway.”
My mother lunged for the phone.
Alexander caught her wrist before she reached it.
He did not squeeze.
He simply blocked her.
“Don’t.”
She stared at him.
“Take your hands off me.”
He immediately released her.
Then Marlene spoke.
“There’s something else in the messages.”
My mother turned.
Marlene looked directly at me.
“She wasn’t only moving your money.”
“What else was she doing?”
May you like
Marlene swallowed.
“She was trying to change your grandmother’s will.”
