Chapter 7: The Woman in the Wedding Dress
“Don't let him die!””
Victoria's voice cut through the rain as she ran toward Thomas.
Andre raised his weapon.
“Stop right there!””
Victoria stumbled to a halt, her wedding dress dragging through the mud. Her veil was gone, one sleeve was torn, and blood streaked the side of her face.
“I said don't let him die!”” she shouted.
“You don't understand. If he dies, Daniel loses everything.””
Daniel pressed harder against his father's wound.
“Call an ambulance!”” he yelled at Andre.
“Now!””
Andre spoke urgently into his radio while Marcus knelt beside Thomas, helping Daniel hold pressure on the bleeding shoulder.
Thomas's eyelids fluttered.
“Daniel,” he whispered.
“I'm here, Dad. Don't move.””
Thomas gripped Daniel's wrist with surprising strength.
“Don't let her take the key.””
Daniel glanced at the brass key in his palm.
Then he looked at Victoria.
She was staring at it.
Not at Thomas's wound. Not at the gunman who had nearly killed them.
At the key.
“Victoria,” Daniel said quietly.
“Why are you here?””
She swallowed.
“Because your father contacted me.””
“My father is lying on the ground.””
“Not him.”” Her eyes flicked toward Thomas.
“Your other father.””
Daniel felt the world tilt.
“What?””
Victoria reached into the folds of her ruined wedding gown and pulled out her phone.
“I received a message twenty minutes ago. It said that if I wanted to know what happened to my mother, I had to come here.””
Daniel stared at her.
“Your mother?””
Victoria nodded, tears mixing with rain.
“She died when I was twelve. My father told me she had cancer. But three months ago, I found a letter hidden in his office. It said she hadn't died of cancer.””
“What did it say?””
“That she had discovered something about the Hayes family. Something so dangerous that she had threatened to go to the police.””
Thomas groaned.
Victoria knelt beside him.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Tell him.””
Thomas opened his eyes.
“You should have stayed away.””
Victoria recoiled as though he had struck her.
“You promised me!””
“I promised your mother I would protect you.””
“Then why did you make me do this?””
Daniel looked between them.
“Make you do what?””
Victoria covered her mouth.
For the first time since Daniel had met her, she looked genuinely terrified of the consequences of her own choices.
“I was supposed to marry you,” she said.
“That was the plan from the beginning.””
Daniel slowly rose to his feet.
“What plan?””
“Your grandfather left behind a trust. A private trust that neither your mother nor Richard could access without the original birth records. The trust was designed to pass to the biological heir of the Hayes family.””
Daniel glanced at the brass key.
“And the key opens the vault?””
Victoria nodded.
“Your mother found the records before she died. Richard needed someone close enough to you to discover where she had hidden them.””
“So you seduced me.””
“I fell in love with you.””
Daniel laughed once, bitterly.
“You were paid to approach me.””
“At first.””
“And then?””
Victoria's face crumpled.
“Then I fell in love with you, and I couldn't stop what I'd already started.””
Daniel stared at her.
“You put something in my champagne.””
Victoria shook her head frantically.
“I was told it was a sedative. Something that would make you collapse before the ceremony ended. The plan was to have a doctor declare you temporarily incapacitated, then activate the clause in your marriage agreement.””
“You expected me to become a legal prisoner on my wedding day?””
“I thought you'd recover!””
“You thought?””
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Richard told me it had been tested. He said it would be harmless.””
“And you believed him?””
Victoria looked down.
“I wanted to believe him.””
Thomas suddenly coughed, blood staining his lips.
Daniel rushed back to him.
“Stay with me.””
Thomas seized Daniel's sleeve.
“Your grandfather's trust,” he whispered.
“It doesn't belong to the oldest son.””
Daniel leaned closer.
“What does it belong to?””
Thomas's eyes shifted toward Victoria.
“The child who was stolen.””
Then his grip loosened.
His head fell sideways.
“Dad?””
Daniel pressed his fingers against Thomas's neck.
A pulse.
Weak, but present.
The ambulance sirens grew louder beyond the cemetery gates.
Andre knelt beside them.
“Medical team is coming through the east entrance.””
Daniel looked up at Victoria.
“Who shot him?””
“I don't know.””
“You were the one who told me to come here.””
“I didn't send the message.””
“Then who did?””
Victoria held up her phone.
“The message came from a number registered to Richard Whitmore.””
Marcus stood abruptly.
“Richard is at the mansion.””
Victoria shook her head.
“No. He left an hour ago.””
Daniel's stomach tightened.
“Where did he go?””
“To the hospital.””
“Why?””
Victoria looked at him with haunted eyes.
“Because your mother isn't the only person who may have been murdered.””
Daniel stared at her.
“Explain.””
Victoria wiped her face with the back of her hand.
“My father told me that your mother died naturally. But the letter I found said Eleanor had been poisoned over several months. It said the person responsible was someone who had access to her medication.””
Daniel remembered Grace sitting beside his mother during those final weeks. He remembered the endless bottles on the bedside table, the doctors coming and going, the way his mother had grown weaker despite every treatment.
“Who had access?””
Victoria's voice dropped.
“Richard.””
Daniel shook his head.
“That's impossible.””
“He was handling the financial side of her care. He paid the private nurses. He arranged the doctors. He even recommended the specialist who treated her during her final month.””
Daniel felt sick.
“And you knew this before the wedding?””
“I suspected it. I didn't know how to prove it.””
“So you still went through with the ceremony.””
Victoria began to sob.
“I thought if I married you, I could get close enough to the trust to find the records. I thought I could expose my father without losing you.””
“You could have told me.””
“I was afraid.””
“You were afraid of losing me, so you tried to make me lose my freedom?””
She had no answer.
The paramedics arrived and took over Thomas's care. As they lifted him onto the stretcher, his eyes opened briefly.
He looked directly at Daniel.
“Don't let them bury the wrong son again.””
Then the stretcher disappeared into the ambulance.
Daniel remained in the rain, the brass key pressed into his palm.
Victoria approached him cautiously.
“Daniel, there's something else you need to know.””
He turned away.
“I'm finished listening to you.””
“My father knows which baby was switched.””
Daniel stopped.
Victoria's voice trembled.
“He has the original hospital records. He told me that if I failed tonight, he would destroy them.””
“Why would he care which baby was switched?””
“Because the baby who was taken wasn't yours.””
Daniel turned slowly.
Victoria's face had gone white.
“The child who was stolen was my brother.””
Before Daniel could ask another question, a police officer approached them.
“Mr. Hayes, we need you to come with us.””
“Why?””
The officer held up a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small pistol.
“We found this in your vehicle. Your fingerprints are on it, and the weapon appears to match the shell casings recovered at the scene.””
Daniel stared at the gun.
He had never seen it before.
Then the officer added the words that changed everything.
“Your best friend says you brought it here tonight.””
Daniel looked toward Marcus.
His friend wouldn't meet his eyes.
May you like
And for the first time, Daniel understood that the conspiracy surrounding his family might not be designed merely to steal his inheritance.
Someone wanted him convicted of murder.
