The Wedding That Stopped
Chapter 04 - The Wedding That Stopped
Madeline removed her veil.
Her mother rushed toward her.
“Sweetheart, please. We can take you inside.”
Madeline shook her head.
She looked at Nathan.
“Did you love her?”
Nathan glanced at Claire.
Once, the answer would have been simple.
“Yes.”
Claire looked away.
Nathan continued.
“I loved her more than anyone.”
Madeline swallowed.
“And then?”
Nathan told the story he had believed for six years.
Claire ended their relationship without explanation.
She stopped answering calls.
Her apartment was empty when he returned from London.
His mother told him Claire had accepted money to disappear.
Nathan had been devastated.
Then angry.
Eventually, he convinced himself Claire had never loved him.
Claire listened in stunned silence.
Her story was the exact opposite.
She had called Nathan every day.
His number stopped working.
Her emails bounced back.
Letters were returned unopened.
When she went to Hale International, security escorted her from the building.
Victoria had built two separate prisons from the same lie.
Madeline looked at Victoria.
“You destroyed two people.”
Victoria answered coldly.
“I prevented a disaster.”
Claire looked at her sons.
“They are children.”
Victoria’s expression softened for half a second.
“I am not talking about them.”
“Then what disaster?”
Victoria looked at Claire.
“Your father.”
Claire froze.
Nathan frowned.
“What does her father have to do with anything?”
Victoria did not answer.
Claire’s father, Robert Bennett, had died seven years earlier.
A construction accident.
At least that was what Claire had always been told.
Victoria looked directly at her.
May you like
“Your father didn’t die in an accident.”
And suddenly the ruined wedding was no longer the biggest secret at Hawthorne Estate.
