The Wedding Guest Who Wasn't Invited
Chapter 07 - The Wedding Guest Who Wasn't Invited
Charles Hale arrived twenty minutes later.
He wasn't dressed for a wedding.
He wore an expensive gray suit and carried a leather briefcase.
When he entered the library and saw Eleanor, he stopped.
"You."
Eleanor watched him carefully.
Charles recovered quickly.
"I thought you weren't attending."
Victoria looked at her brother.
"She knows."
Charles turned pale.
"Knows what?"
"The deed."
Richard stepped forward.
"Don't play games."
Charles placed the briefcase down.
He blamed Victoria immediately.
"It was her idea."
Victoria laughed bitterly.
"My idea?"
"You wanted Madison secure."
"You needed money."
Their accusations came quickly.
Ugly.
Desperate.
Daniel finally understood what had happened.
Charles owed nearly two million dollars after a real-estate investment collapsed.
He needed collateral for a new loan.
The Whitmore mansion was worth more than five million.
But it belonged to Eleanor.
Victoria convinced herself that Eleanor would eventually leave it to Daniel anyway.
So Charles proposed a shortcut.
Forge the transfer.
Secure the loan.
Repay it after another investment succeeded.
No one would ever know.
Except the investment failed too.
Now foreclosure proceedings were quietly beginning.
Daniel stared at them.
"You gambled with my mother's home?"
Charles smiled coldly.
"Technically, you thought it was your home."
The words hit Daniel hard.
Because they were true.
He had benefited from the lie.
Madison entered the room.
She had heard everything.
Her wedding dress brushed against the doorway as she approached her mother.
"Tell me you didn't know."
Victoria began crying.
"Everything I did was for you."
Madison stepped back.
"No."
She removed her engagement ring.
"Everything you did was because you wanted to control what I had."
Then she turned toward Daniel.
But Daniel didn't reach for her.
May you like
Not yet.
Too much truth stood between them.
