I read Rowan’s message twice.
The first time, I was angry.
The second time, I started thinking.
A man like Graham did not need a room full of witnesses. He needed one person who trusted him and a pen that kept moving.
I typed back.
Give them the lounge. Put the cameras on my tablet. Pull every Ashford Holdings record you can find.
I added one more sentence.
Quietly.
Rowan answered with a check mark.
I put the phone away and went back into the ballroom.
The champagne smelled sweet and sharp. The strings had shifted into a slower song. Guests stood in clusters beneath the lights, laughing with their hands held out in careful gestures.
Evan was near the ice sculpture with two college friends. He was telling a story, smiling in the easy way he had when he forgot to watch himself.
I started toward him.
Blair stepped between us.
She held a glass of champagne by its stem. Her nails were pale pink, each one polished smooth enough to reflect the light.
“I hear you send money home,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Do you?”
She tilted her head. “Evan told me. The mortgage, the medical bills. You’ve been trying to buy your way back into the family.”
There was a little pity in her voice. It made the insult worse.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” Her gaze dropped to my boots. “You left, Jade. You chose that life.”
She touched the ring on her finger.
“Evan says you’ve always resented him.”
“Evan says a lot of things when he’s trying to keep the peace.”
Her smile tightened.
“Maybe you should leave before the toast. It would save everyone the trouble.”
“I’m staying.”
She leaned closer. Her perfume was sweet enough to make my eyes sting.
“You don’t belong here.”
I met her gaze.
“Are you done?”
She laughed softly, then turned away as if the conversation had bored her.
Her smile returned at once. She reached Evan’s side and slid her hand into his.
I did not follow them.
I went to the dark alcove beside the A/V booth. A stack of folded table linens sat there, still wrapped in plastic. The room’s noise softened behind the heavy curtains.
My tablet vibrated.
Rowan had sent a file.
I opened it.
Ashford Holdings was in worse shape than Graham’s call had suggested. Several loans were past due. Their accounts had been emptied through a chain of offshore companies. A federal investigation was open for embezzlement.
There were notes about private lenders, too.
Not ordinary banks.
The people Graham owed money to had names in the file and no public offices. They had made short-term loans against Ashford properties. They had sent warnings. They wanted collateral before morning.
The largest amount was five million dollars.
Evan was not rich. He was not even close.
But his credit was clean. His name was clean. And he trusted the family he was about to marry into.
A video window appeared on my screen.
Rowan had connected the VIP lounge camera.
Evan sat on a leather sofa. Graham stood beside a low table. Several sheets of paper were arranged in a neat stack, with a pen placed on top.
Graham wore the expression of a man offering advice.
“Nothing to worry about,” I heard through the tablet speaker. “The hotel needs the groom to sign a standard liability agreement. It’s routine.”
Evan leaned forward.
“Is it required for the wedding?”
“Just one signature. Then we can get back to the party.”
Evan picked up the pen.
I rose too quickly and bumped my shoulder against the curtain frame.
My hand went to my phone.
I was about to call him when my mother’s hand closed around my shoulder.
“What are you doing back here?” she said.
She sounded more offended than concerned.
“The toast is about to start. Graham is speaking. You need to be out there.”
“Mom, listen. Graham is making Evan sign a loan guarantee.”
Her face changed.
Not to fear.
To anger.
“He is not.”
“I heard him. Those papers aren’t for the venue.”
“You’re making this up because you’re jealous.”
“I saw the file. Ashford Holdings is bankrupt. They’re under investigation, and Graham is using Evan to get a loan.”
My mother looked toward the ballroom. A woman at the nearest table glanced in our direction.
She lowered her voice.
“Do you understand what you’re doing? You’re trying to ruin your brother’s engagement.”
“I’m trying to stop him from signing away his future.”
“You have always done this. You come back when there is something to criticize.”
I closed my eyes for one second.
There were years behind that sentence.
There was the time I left home and got no phone call for months. There was the first company I started with a borrowed truck. There were the nights I slept on the office floor because the crew had an early concrete pour.
There were all the times I had tried to tell her I was doing well, only to hear about Evan’s promotion before she asked a single question.
“I’m telling you what Graham said,” I replied.
She pulled her shoulder away from my hand.
“Stop it. The Ashfords are helping us. They are bringing our family into a better life.”
“They’re using us.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“If you make a scene tonight, I will write you out of the will.”
I looked at her.
The threat had once been enough to make me careful. I had spent years trying to keep my mother from deciding I was selfish, ungrateful, or difficult.
This time, I thought of the ring.
I thought of the monthly payments going into her account. I thought of the medical bills she had let me pay through a company she believed was a charity.
I thought of the man in the lounge telling Evan to sign.
“You can’t threaten me with something I don’t need,” I said.
For a moment, my mother’s mouth opened but no words came out.
The DJ lowered the music.
A spotlight turned toward the stage. Graham Ashford walked up to the microphone, smoothing his tie.
My phone vibrated again.
Rowan’s message filled the screen.
Evan signed. The Volkov men are in the lobby. They want collateral tonight.
I could see the stage beyond the alcove.
I could see Evan looking toward Graham, waiting for the speech to begin.
I could see my mother watching me with a warning in her eyes.
For a long time, I had believed the right thing to do was keep the peace.
That belief had brought me here.
Click here to continue reading: PART 3: When the Security Team Came Down the Aisle, the Guests Expected Them to Take Me Away
The Ring on Blair’s Hand Was the First Thing That Made Me Forget Why I Had Come
Part 2 of 10
