Chapter 5 - CAMILLE NEEDED THE MARRIAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT
The wedding became “private.”
That was the public explanation.
Weather concerns.
Security.
Family preference.
In reality, Camille had compressed forty-eight hours into twelve.
Why?
A Hion Ridge option expired at midnight.
Victor found it in the current filing.
If Elias married and signed before then, Hion Ridge could exercise the continuity note.
If not, the option lapsed.
Camille needed the wedding.
Then the husband’s signature.
Delphine asked:
“Why would Elias sign anything tonight?”
Victor looked grim.
“Wedding documents.”
Trust acknowledgments.
Insurance.
Family-office paperwork.
A stack.
“Someone could hide it.”
“Yes.”
Then Delphine said:
“Tell him.”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“He told me to bring proof.”
She almost exploded.
“Proof is in my hand.”
“He means proof Camille knows.”
Different.
The note could exist without her conspiracy.
Fair.
Then Delphine remembered the carriage-house man.
She described him.
Victor showed photographs.
Attorneys.
Accountants.
Guests.
One face.
Harold Vane Jr.
Son of Hion Ridge’s founder.
Camille’s godbrother.
Current managing partner.
There.
Then Victor finally told Elias.
No shouting.
No dramatic reveal.
They met in the library.
Delphine was invited back.
Not rehired.
Important.
Elias looked at her.
“You were right about Hion Ridge.”
“Partly.”
He noticed the correction.
Good.
Then Victor explained the option.
The continuity note.
The deadline.
Elias’s face hardened.
He called Camille.
Asked her directly:
“Why did you move the wedding?”
She answered:
“Because I want this over.”
Then:
“Because every delay gives people another reason to interfere.”
Not proof.
Then Elias asked:
“Do you know Harold Vane Jr. is inside the carriage house every night?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
“What are you discussing?”
“My family.”
“What about it?”
Another silence.
Then Camille said:
“Ask Delphine what her husband stole.”
Delphine froze.
“What?”
Camille entered the library before anyone expected.
She had been upstairs.
Dressed already.
Ivory gown.
No veil.
She placed a document on the desk.
Aaron Aubrey’s signature.
Receiving receipt.
Warehouse 9.
A container inventory discrepancy.
Value:
$240,000.
Camille looked at Delphine.
“Your husband copied Hion Ridge files because he was trying to hide his own theft.”
“No.”
“You don’t know.”
Delphine’s hands tightened.
Elias read the document.
Victor looked disturbed.
Then Camille said:
“Aaron Aubrey was caught diverting cargo.”
“By who?”
“My father.”
Thomas Ashford.
Then:
“He agreed to repay it through labor and loan restructuring.”
Delphine felt sick.
Could Aaron have hidden that?
Maybe.
Love does not make someone incapable of wrongdoing.
Then she remembered his letter.
I signed something I should not have signed.
Could be confession.
Camille smiled sadly.
“You think I’m trying to steal from Elias.”
She looked at him.
“I’m trying to recover what your father took from mine after Aaron’s theft nearly destroyed the partnership.”
Now everyone had a different version.
Then Camille placed one more document down.
A private settlement.
Salvatore Ferraro.
Thomas Ashford.
Hion Ridge.
It stated that if certain stolen cargo losses were ever proven fraudulent, Ashford heirs could reclaim an interest in the port parcels.
Camille’s claim.
Not greed alone.
Inheritance.
Then Delphine noticed one detail.
Aaron’s supposed theft receipt was dated:
September 18.
The same day he was hospitalized with exhaustion.
At 3:10 p.m.
Receipt signature time:
6:42 p.m.
Aaron had been in a hospital bed.
He could not have signed it.
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The evidence against him was forged.
And Camille’s entire story had been built on a document someone created while Aaron was unconscious.
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