Chapter 4 - THE GROOM’S OTHER FAMILY
Logan tried to hide the phone.
Sabrina took it from him.
The message included a photograph.
Logan stood beside a dark-haired woman holding a baby.
The child looked less than a year old.
Sabrina stared at the image.
“Who is she?”
Logan’s face changed.
“It’s complicated.”
The phrase sounded almost identical to every lie Raymond had used.
The woman’s name was Emily Carter.
She worked at one of Richard Hale’s restaurants.
Logan had been involved with her for two years.
Their son, Benjamin, was ten months old.
Logan’s family knew.
Richard had paid Emily to remain quiet until after the wedding.
The marriage would connect the Hale family to the pavilion and to assets they believed Raymond controlled.
Sabrina had not been chosen for love.
She had been selected for access.
Emily entered the ballroom through a side door.
She carried no child.
Her mother was watching him nearby.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Sabrina.
“I tried to contact you.”
“Logan blocked every number.”
Sabrina looked toward Victoria.
“Did you know?”
Victoria shook her head quickly.
But Helen opened another financial record.
A payment of fifty thousand dollars had been sent from Victoria’s account to Emily.
The memo read confidentiality.
Sabrina’s expression shattered.
“You paid her?”
Victoria began crying.
“I was protecting the wedding.”
“You knew he had a baby?”
“I knew there was a problem.”
“A child is not a problem.”
Richard Hale stood and demanded that everyone stop speaking.
Detective Grant turned toward him.
“Mr. Hale, investigators also need to question you about the forged vendor invoices.”
Richard attempted to leave.
Officers blocked him.
Logan shouted that the wedding was private.
Sabrina removed her veil.
“No.”
She looked at him with a coldness I had never seen before.
“The wedding is over.”
Guests began whispering and recording.
I signaled the security staff to lower the screens.
This was no longer about exposing Sabrina publicly.
She had been cruel to me.
But she had also been manipulated by people who viewed her as an asset.
Both truths remained.
Raymond was arrested for conspiracy, fraud, forgery, and solicitation connected to the recording about Victoria.
Richard was detained for financial crimes.
Logan was not arrested.
Not yet.
But his phone was seized because it contained payment records and communications with Raymond.
Victoria sat on the floor beside the front row.
Her silver gown spread around her.
“You knew Raymond was dangerous,” she whispered to me.
“I knew he was dishonest.”
“You let me walk into this.”
“You cut apart my suit.”
“You told me to disappear.”
“You planned to steal my house.”
“Yet you still expect me to protect you from the man you chose over me.”
She looked down.
There was no answer.
Sabrina approached slowly.
Her makeup had begun to run.
“I made a mistake.”
“No.”
I looked at the empty aisle.
“You made many choices.”
“A mistake is forgetting the rings.”
“You helped erase me from a family I built.”
Her mouth trembled.
“Are you going to take the house?”
“The house already belongs to the trust.”
“Will you throw Mom out?”
“I will follow the law.”
She flinched because fairness sounded less comforting than immediate rescue.
Then Helen received a call from the forensic accountant.
The wedding fraud was larger than expected.
Money had not only been taken from my accounts.
Someone had opened loans in my name using the workshop as collateral.
May you like
The total exceeded one million dollars.
The application carried Sabrina’s signature as a witness.
