Chapter 2 - THE BRIDE WHO HAD ALREADY SPENT MY MONEY
Celeste recovered quickly.
She always did.
“You cannot revoke my trust because of one misunderstanding,” she said.
“It was contingent on our marriage.”
“We are getting married.”
“No, we’re not.”
A woman dropped her champagne glass.
The sound seemed to release the courtyard from its paralysis. Whispers spread across the tables. Several guests lifted their phones.
Celeste looked toward the photographers.
“Everyone needs to leave,” she ordered.
No one moved.
Theodore Monroe emerged from the mansion with his wife, Vivian.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired, and dressed in a cream dinner jacket despite the afternoon heat. He had spent most of his adult life trading on a family name that carried more prestige than cash.
“What is happening?” he demanded.
Adrian pointed toward Elena.
“Your daughter pushed my mother into the fountain.”
Theodore glanced at Elena’s soaked dress.
“Celeste said the woman became aggressive.”
“The woman is my mother.”
Theodore’s expression tightened.
“That does not give her permission to disrupt a private event.”
Elena stepped forward.
“I asked Celeste why her father’s company had sent invoices to Adrian’s office for work that was never completed.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“What invoices?”
Celeste’s eyes flashed.
“Your mother has been searching through my things.”
“No,” Elena said. “Your assistant left a folder in the library. My name was written on one of the pages.”
Adrian looked at Nathan’s latest message.
The forensic team had found five payments from Bennett Capital to Monroe Holdings over the previous eight months.
Total: $4.2 million.
Each payment had been approved through Adrian’s private authorization code.
He had not approved them.
Theodore stepped between Adrian and Celeste.
“You are allowing an emotional family incident to interfere with a significant alliance.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“Alliance?”
“Our families have spent three years building a future together.”
“My company paid your debts.”
Theodore lowered his voice.
“Be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because people in this courtyard believe you are one of us.”
Adrian glanced around.
Theodore continued.
“You may own factories and office towers, but reputation is inherited. It cannot be purchased.”
Elena looked at him.
“That must be comforting when you’ve wasted everything else your father left you.”
Theodore’s face reddened.
Celeste took a step toward Elena.
Adrian moved between them.
“Do not touch her.”
Celeste looked at him as if he were a stranger.
“You would throw away our future over that woman?”
Elena flinched.
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“That woman worked nights cleaning offices so I could finish high school. She sold her wedding ring to pay the filing fee for my first patent. She ate canned soup for six months while I rented machinery.”
Celeste folded her arms.
“And you repaid her. She has a house and a driver.”
“You think love is an invoice?”
“I think parents should know when to step aside.”
Adrian stared at her.
He had ignored too much.
The way Celeste dismissed servers without making eye contact.
The way she called his childhood stories “good material” for interviews but refused to visit his old neighborhood.
The way she asked Elena not to appear in their engagement photographs until a stylist had “improved her.”
He had mistaken tolerance for patience.
Celeste reached for his hand.
“Adrian, listen to me. My father’s company has a temporary cash problem. The money was being used for investments that would benefit both families.”
“Why forge my approval?”
Theodore interrupted.
“No one forged anything.”
Nathan called.
Adrian answered on speaker.
“We confirmed the authorization requests came from an encrypted device registered to Celeste Monroe,” Nathan said. “The transfers were directed to three Monroe Holdings subsidiaries. Two are insolvent. The third purchased a property in Palm Beach last month.”
Celeste went pale.
Vivian Monroe looked at her husband.
“What property?”
Theodore said nothing.
Nathan continued.
“We also found an application to draw six million dollars from the marital trust immediately after the wedding.”
Adrian looked at Celeste.
“What was the money for?”
She lifted her chin.
“Security.”
“For whom?”
“My family.”
“You planned to use my trust to rescue your father’s company.”
“Your money would have protected our name.”
“Our name?”
She gestured toward the estate.
“This world opened its doors to you because of me.”
“No. Your family opened its invoices.”
Theodore stepped close enough for Adrian to smell bourbon.
“You will honor the commitments you made.”
“I never committed to covering fraud.”
“You committed to Celeste.”
“She assaulted my mother.”
“She embarrassed a socially inexperienced woman who refused to respect boundaries.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Theodore saw the anger and smiled faintly.
“Do you think frightening me will restore the years you spent in public housing?”
Elena’s shoulders stiffened.
Adrian remained still.
Theodore continued.
“You can put a poor boy in a tuxedo. He still panics when respectable people remind him where he came from.”
Adrian looked around the courtyard.
The guests expected an explosion.
That was what Theodore wanted.
If Adrian shouted or struck him, the Monroes would turn the story into proof that their daughter had escaped a violent outsider.
Adrian had met men like Theodore before.
Men who mistook self-control for shame.
He smiled.
“You are right about one thing.”
Theodore’s confidence returned.
“I remember exactly where I came from.”
Adrian lifted his phone.
“And where I came from, we check our pockets when a man like you offers a handshake.”
Nathan’s voice remained on the line.
“Adrian, there is one more issue. The Palm Beach property was not purchased in Theodore’s name.”
“Whose name?”
“Vivian Monroe.”
Vivian turned toward her husband.
“I have never owned property in Palm Beach.”
Theodore’s face changed.
Nathan continued.
“The deed was signed electronically using her identity. The listed contact address belongs to a woman named Lindsey Hale.”
Celeste whispered, “Dad?”
Vivian stared at her husband.
“Who is Lindsey Hale?”
Theodore looked toward the driveway.
Adrian understood before anyone else did.
The Palm Beach house was not for Celeste.
It was not an investment.
May you like
Theodore had been preparing an escape.
And he had planned to finance it with Adrian’s money.
