PART 2 — THE BRIDE WHO STOLE MY DEAD FIANCÉ
I wiped my face one last time and stepped out of the restroom.
My legs still felt weak, but the woman walking back toward the ballroom wasn’t the same woman who had run away crying ten minutes earlier.
That woman had just discovered that the man she’d buried was alive.
This woman wanted answers.
And I knew exactly where I was going to get them.
The ceremony was about to begin.
Guests were already filling the rows of white chairs beneath an enormous arch covered in roses, eucalyptus, and ivory orchids.
My flowers.
I had spent four hours making that arch beautiful for a man who had pretended to be dead.
The thought almost made me laugh.
Almost.
My assistant, Sophie, hurried toward me.
“Meredith, there you are. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
She stared at my ruined mascara.
“You don’t look fine.”
“I need you to do something for me.”
Her expression changed immediately.
“What?”
“Stay here. Make sure everything keeps running.”
“Where are you going?”
I looked toward the groom’s room.
“To find out whose wedding this really is.”
Sophie opened her mouth, but I walked away before she could ask another question.
I didn’t go back to Adrian.
Not yet.
Instead, I found the wedding coordinator.
Her name tag said KELLY.
“Kelly?”
She turned toward me.
“Meredith, perfect. The bridal bouquet needs one more—”
“What’s the bride’s name?”
She blinked.
“What?”
“The bride. What’s her name?”
Kelly smiled like the question was strange.
“Vanessa.”
My stomach tightened.
“Vanessa what?”
“Vanessa Hale.”
I’d never heard the name.
“How long have Vanessa and Adrian been together?”
Kelly’s smile disappeared.
For one second, she looked confused.
Then suspicious.
“You know Adrian?”
I forced myself to breathe.
“I used to.”
Her eyes dropped to my florist badge.
“Meredith…”
Something in her voice told me she recognized my name.
“You’ve heard about me.”
She didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
“What did they tell you?”
Kelly glanced around.
“This really isn’t the time.”
“Three months ago, I buried that groom.”
Her face went completely white.
“What?”
“I was supposed to marry him six weeks after he supposedly died.”
Kelly stared at me as if I’d slapped her.
“I… I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I.”
Then music began playing inside the ballroom.
The ceremony was starting.
Kelly looked toward the doors.
“I have to go.”
I stepped aside.
“Go.”
She hurried away.
I remained standing there, listening as guests settled into silence.
Then I heard applause.
Adrian was walking down the aisle.
I moved carefully toward the back entrance.
Through the partially opened doors, I saw him standing beside the officiant.
Alive.
Perfectly healthy.
Smiling.
The same crooked smile I’d once believed would be waiting for me at the altar.
For months, I’d dreamed about that smile.
Now it made me sick.
Colleen sat in the front row.
She kept glancing toward the back of the room.
Looking for me.
She knew I had seen him.
She knew the lie was over.
Then the doors opened again.
Everyone stood.
The bride appeared.
Vanessa.
She was beautiful.
Maybe thirty.
Dark hair.
Elegant dress.
Tears already shining in her eyes.
She looked genuinely happy.
That surprised me.
I had expected to hate her immediately.
But looking at her face, I suddenly wondered something.
Did she know?
Did Vanessa know Adrian had faked his death?
Did she know another woman had stood beside his coffin?
Did she know I had spent three months grieving him?
Vanessa reached the altar.
Adrian took her hand.
And then I saw it.
The bracelet.
A thin gold bracelet with a tiny blue stone.
My bracelet.
I had bought it in Italy two years earlier.
I’d left it at Adrian’s apartment one weekend.
He told me he’d lost it.
Now it was around Vanessa’s wrist.
My sadness disappeared.
Something much colder replaced it.
The officiant began speaking.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today—”
I stepped into the ballroom.
Colleen saw me immediately.
Her face drained of color.
I didn’t say anything.
I simply walked toward the side of the room and stood beside one of my flower arrangements.
Adrian hadn’t noticed me yet.
But Colleen couldn’t stop staring.
She quietly stood from her chair.
I smiled.
She froze.
Then I slowly raised one finger to my lips.
Don’t.
Her eyes widened.
I could almost see the panic moving through her.
The officiant continued.
“Marriage is built upon honesty, trust, and commitment.”
I nearly laughed.
Honesty.
Perfect.
Then came the vows.
Vanessa went first.
Her voice shook with emotion.
“Adrian, when you came into my life, you showed me what it meant to feel safe again.”
Safe.
I looked at Adrian.
He didn’t deserve that word.
She continued.
“You told me that life could disappear without warning, so we should never waste the time we’re given.”
My stomach twisted.
Of course he’d told her that.
A dead man giving lessons about how short life was.
Then it was Adrian’s turn.
He held Vanessa’s hands.
“Vanessa, I promise there will never be secrets between us.”
I couldn’t stay silent anymore.
I laughed.
It wasn’t loud.
But the room was so quiet that everyone heard it.
Adrian stopped.
His head turned slowly.
And saw me.
For one unbelievable second, neither of us moved.
His face changed exactly the way his mother’s had.
Shock.
Fear.
Then calculation.
“Meredith?”
Vanessa looked between us.
“Who is Meredith?”
Nobody answered.
I stepped forward.
Colleen rushed toward me.
“Meredith, please.”
“Don’t touch me.”
The room filled with whispers.
Vanessa looked at Adrian.
“Who is she?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Someone from my past.”
I stared at him.
“That’s an interesting way to describe your dead fiancée.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Vanessa’s expression went blank.
“What?”
I kept walking.
Every guest watched me.
“Three months ago, I attended Adrian’s funeral.”
Someone gasped.
Vanessa slowly pulled her hands away from Adrian.
“Funeral?”
Adrian stepped toward me.
“Meredith, we can explain.”
“We?”
I looked at Colleen.
“Yes. I suppose your mother has quite a lot to explain too.”
Colleen started crying.
“Please don’t do this here.”
“Where would you prefer?”
I asked.
“At the cemetery where you let me bury your son?”
Vanessa stared at Adrian.
“You told me Meredith was your ex.”
My heart stopped.
So she knew my name.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Vanessa—”
“You said she left you.”
I looked at her.
“He told you I left him?”
She nodded slowly.
“He said you ended the engagement.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“Six weeks before our wedding?”
Vanessa looked at Adrian again.
He said nothing.
That silence told us both everything.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
For three months, I hadn’t deleted anything.
The engagement photos.
The venue contract.
Our wedding invitations.
Messages from Adrian.
A picture of us choosing his suit.
The exact suit he was wearing now.
I held up the screen.
“This photo was taken four months ago.”
Vanessa stared at it.
Her lips parted.
Adrian’s arm was around me.
I was holding my wedding dress receipt.
We were smiling.
The date was visible.
I swiped.
“This was two weeks later.”
Another photo.
Adrian kissing me outside our wedding venue.
I swiped again.
“And this message was sent the night before his supposed accident.”
I read it aloud.
“‘I can’t wait to marry you, Mere. Six more weeks and you’re stuck with me forever.'”
Vanessa stumbled backward.
“No.”
Adrian reached for her.
She slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
The entire room erupted into whispers.
Then an older man stood from Vanessa’s side.
“Adrian, what the hell is going on?”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I can explain everything.”
“Then explain.”
Adrian looked at me.
And finally, for the first time since I entered the room, his confident expression cracked.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
I stared at him.
“What wasn’t?”
He lowered his voice.
“You weren’t supposed to be here.”
Those words hurt more than anything else he’d said.
Not because they were cruel.
Because they were true.
This wedding had been planned around my absence.
My grief.
My belief that he was dead.
“You staged your death.”
Adrian looked around at the guests.
“Meredith—”
“Did you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Did you stage your death?”
Colleen suddenly spoke.
“It wasn’t his idea.”
Every head turned toward her.
Adrian’s expression became furious.
“Mom.”
Colleen started shaking.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
“Stop.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
Tears filled her eyes.
“The accident happened.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“There really was a crash.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Colleen continued.
“But Adrian wasn’t driving.”
The room became silent again.
Adrian looked like he wanted to disappear.
“Who was?”
I asked.
Colleen covered her mouth.
“A man named Eric.”
“Mom, shut up.”
Adrian’s voice was sharp now.
But Colleen kept talking.
“Adrian had lent him the car.”
I stared at her.
“But the police identified Adrian.”
Colleen nodded.
“Because Adrian’s wallet was inside.”
Something cold crawled down my spine.
“Then whose body did we bury?”
Nobody answered.
I looked directly at Adrian.
“Whose body was in that coffin?”
Vanessa whispered, “Oh my God.”
Adrian suddenly grabbed my arm.
“We are not doing this here.”
I ripped myself free.
“Don’t ever touch me again.”
Two men from Vanessa’s family moved closer.
Adrian backed off.
Then Colleen said something that changed everything.
“We didn’t know at first.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The hospital called me.”
Her voice cracked.
“They thought the body was Adrian because of the identification in the car. The injuries were severe. They asked me to identify him.”
I remembered that day.
Colleen had told me not to come to the hospital.
She said she wanted to spare me.
I had thanked her.
God.
I had thanked her.
“What happened?”
I whispered.
Colleen looked at Adrian.
“He came home that night.”
A murmur moved through the guests.
“He came home?”
“Alive,” she said.
“I nearly fainted when I saw him.”
I stared at Adrian.
“So you knew before the funeral.”
Colleen nodded.
“Yes.”
My throat burned.
“Then why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Adrian finally exploded.
“Because I needed a way out!”
The room went silent.
He immediately seemed to regret shouting.
But it was too late.
“Out of what?” I asked.
“Us?”
He looked at me.
His face hardened.
“Everything.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You faked your death because you didn’t want to marry me?”
“It wasn’t that simple.”
“Then make it simple.”
Adrian ran both hands through his hair.
“There were debts.”
“What debts?”
He looked toward Vanessa.
She stared back at him with horror.
“Adrian?”
He ignored her.
“I owed people money.”
I frowned.
Adrian had always told me he was financially secure.
He had a good job.
Savings.
Investments.
Or so I thought.
“How much?”
He didn’t answer.
Colleen did.
“Almost four hundred thousand dollars.”
Several guests gasped.
My knees nearly gave out.
“Four hundred thousand?”
“Gambling,” Colleen whispered.
I stared at Adrian.
Everything suddenly rearranged itself inside my head.
The mysterious weekends away.
The times he borrowed money and repaid it quickly.
The strange calls he’d take outside.
The unexplained anxiety before our wedding.
“You were gambling?”
Adrian looked away.
“I had a problem.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You had a problem?”
My voice started rising.
“I buried you.”
He flinched.
“I stood beside your mother while a coffin went into the ground.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know.”
I stepped closer.
“You don’t know what it was like waking up every morning and remembering you were dead.”
My voice cracked.
“You don’t know how many nights I called your phone just to hear your voicemail.”
Adrian’s eyes dropped.
“You don’t know how many times I blamed myself because we’d argued the morning of your accident.”
His face changed.
I remembered the argument perfectly.
I’d complained that he wasn’t helping enough with the wedding.
He had left angry.
For months, I’d wondered whether that argument had somehow led to his death.
“You let me believe our last conversation was a fight.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“And you were alive the entire time.”
Nobody in the ballroom moved.
Then Vanessa spoke.
“Why me?”
Adrian turned toward her.
“What?”
“If you needed to disappear, why marry me?”
His expression became guarded.
Vanessa’s father stepped beside her.
“Answer my daughter.”
Adrian remained silent.
Vanessa looked around the room.
Then slowly looked down at her enormous wedding ring.
Her face changed.
“No.”
Adrian said quickly, “Vanessa—”
“My trust.”
The older man beside her stiffened.
“What about your trust?”
She stared at Adrian.
“My grandfather’s trust releases when I legally marry.”
The room erupted.
I felt my stomach turn.
Four hundred thousand dollars in gambling debt.
A wealthy bride.
A rushed wedding.
Adrian hadn’t escaped one life.
He’d built another one.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“You were going to use me.”
“No.”
“You knew about the trust.”
“I love you.”
She laughed through her tears.
“You told her that too, didn’t you?”
She looked at me.
I nodded.
“Every day.”
Vanessa pulled the ring from her finger.
Adrian reached for her.
“Please.”
She threw it at his chest.
The diamond bounced across the floor.
“No wedding.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Pure panic.
“Vanessa, wait.”
Her father stepped between them.
“Stay away from her.”
Then another voice came from the back of the ballroom.
“Nobody leaves.”
Everyone turned.
Two police officers stood inside the doorway.
Behind them was Kelly, the coordinator.
She looked at me.
“I called them.”
Adrian went pale.
One officer stepped forward.
“Adrian Parker?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“Sir, we need to speak with you regarding a possible fraudulent death declaration and an unidentified deceased person connected to a vehicle registered in your name.”
Adrian looked at his mother.
Then at me.
Then toward a side exit.
And I saw the decision in his eyes before he moved.
He ran.
Guests screamed as Adrian shoved past chairs and sprinted toward the hallway.
One officer chased him.
The second followed.
Colleen collapsed into a chair.
Vanessa stood frozen at the altar.
And I remained beneath the flowers I’d arranged that morning, watching the man I’d mourned run from the life he’d tried to steal.
But before Adrian disappeared through the doorway, something fell from inside his jacket.
A small black envelope.
It landed near my feet.
I bent down and picked it up.
Adrian had written one name across the front.
MEREDITH.
My hands started shaking again.
Vanessa stepped beside me.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
I opened it.
Inside was a folded document.
The first page contained my full name.
My address.
My Social Security number.
And beneath it was a heading that made my blood turn cold.
LIFE INSURANCE BENEFICIARY CHANGE REQUEST.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“Oh my God.”
But it wasn’t Adrian’s life insurance.
It was mine.
And according to the document, the beneficiary had been changed six months earlier.
To Adrian Parker.
I looked toward the hallway where the police had chased him.
Suddenly, faking his own death wasn’t the most terrifying thing Adrian had done.
Because six months before he “died,” my fiancé had taken out a policy connected to my life.
And someone had forged my signature.
PART 3 — THE POLICY WITH MY NAME ON IT
For several seconds, I could only stare at the document.
My name.
My address.
My Social Security number.
My forged signature.
And Adrian listed as the person who would receive the money if I died.
Vanessa took a slow step away from me.
“Meredith… how much is the policy?”
I looked farther down the page.
My stomach turned.
“Two million dollars.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Behind us, the wedding guests had gone almost completely silent.
Nobody cared about the flowers anymore.
Nobody cared about the cake.
Nobody cared that the ceremony had just collapsed in front of them.
Everyone was staring at the paper in my hands.
Colleen suddenly stood.
“Give me that.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Meredith, please. Give me the envelope.”
Something in her voice changed everything.
She wasn’t confused.
She wasn’t shocked.
She knew.
I tightened my grip on the document.
“You’ve seen this before.”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me again.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Then why are you trying to take it?”
Colleen looked toward the hallway where Adrian had disappeared.
“Because there are things you don’t understand.”
I laughed.
“You’re right.”
I held up the policy.
“I don’t understand why your son secretly insured my life for two million dollars.”
Her face crumpled.
“Adrian didn’t create that policy.”
Vanessa stared at her.
“Then who did?”
Colleen said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“Who?”
She whispered, “His father.”
I froze.
Adrian’s father, Thomas Parker, had supposedly died nine years earlier.
At least, that’s what Adrian had always told me.
I’d seen photographs of him.
I’d listened to stories about him.
I’d even visited what I believed was his grave.
“No.”
Colleen started crying.
“Meredith—”
“Thomas is dead.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Vanessa whispered, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I looked at Colleen.
“Are you telling me your husband is alive too?”
She lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
For a moment, I couldn’t speak.
One fake death was horrifying.
Two sounded impossible.
Then a scream came from the hallway.
People turned.
A police officer dragged Adrian back into the ballroom with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Adrian’s suit jacket was torn.
His hair was messy.
The calm, polished groom from twenty minutes earlier was gone.
The officer pushed him toward a chair.
“Sit.”
Adrian saw the paper in my hands.
His face changed.
“No.”
That one word told me everything.
“You know about this.”
“Meredith, put that down.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not what you think.”
I laughed.
“That’s becoming your favorite sentence.”
The officer standing beside him looked toward me.
“What document?”
I handed it over.
He read the heading.
Then looked at Adrian.
“Mr. Parker, do you know anything about this?”
Adrian said nothing.
The officer looked at me.
“Ma’am, did you authorize this?”
“No.”
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
“Did you ever agree to Adrian Parker being the beneficiary of a two-million-dollar life insurance policy?”
“No.”
The officer folded the paper carefully.
“We’ll need this.”
Adrian suddenly stood.
“I want a lawyer.”
“Sit down.”
“I said I want a lawyer.”
The officer pushed him back into the chair.
Colleen started sobbing.
“Adrian, tell them.”
He glared at her.
“Stop talking.”
She shook her head.
“No. I’ve spent years doing what you and your father told me.”
Everyone became still.
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“Mom.”
“You told me Meredith would never know.”
My chest tightened.
“What wouldn’t I know?”
Colleen looked at me.
“The wedding was never the end of the plan.”
Adrian shouted, “Shut up!”
Vanessa’s father stepped forward.
“Let her speak.”
Colleen’s shoulders shook.
“When Adrian met you, Meredith, Thomas told him you were perfect.”
I felt sick.
“Perfect for what?”
She looked at the life insurance document.
“For the policy.”
Vanessa whispered, “Oh my God.”
I stared at Adrian.
“You didn’t fall in love with me.”
His silence answered me.
“Did you?”
He looked away.
Every memory I had of us suddenly felt contaminated.
The coffee shop where we met.
Our first date.
The weekend trips.
The proposal.
The ring.
The night he asked me to move in.
All of it.
I whispered, “Was any of it real?”
Adrian finally looked at me.
“Some of it.”
That hurt more than if he’d simply said no.
“What does that mean?”
“I wasn’t supposed to care about you.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“How romantic.”
Adrian ignored her.
He kept looking at me.
“My father found you.”
My skin went cold.
“Found me?”
“He looks for people.”
“What kind of people?”
“People without close family.”
The words hit me hard.
My parents died when I was twenty-two.
I had no siblings.
A few cousins lived in other states, but we barely spoke.
I had always thought Adrian understood my loneliness.
Maybe that was exactly why he’d chosen me.
“He researches them,” Adrian continued.
“Financial records. Medical history. Family connections.”
I could barely breathe.
“Why?”
“Because people notice when someone disappears.”
His voice dropped.
“But they notice less when that person doesn’t have anyone constantly checking.”
The wedding guests began murmuring.
One officer immediately pulled out his phone and walked away.
Vanessa looked at Adrian with disgust.
“You’re talking about people like they’re targets.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“That’s what my father calls them.”
Targets.
I felt something inside me go numb.
“How many?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“How many people?”
Colleen whispered, “At least five.”
The room erupted.
The police officer spun toward her.
“Five what?”
“Policies.”
My mouth went dry.
“Five people?”
Colleen nodded.
“Before Meredith.”
Adrian shouted, “Mom!”
The officer grabbed his shoulder.
“Sit down.”
Colleen continued.
“Thomas would find someone. Adrian would get close to them. Sometimes they dated. Sometimes they became business partners. One was just a friend.”
I felt dizzy.
“And then?”
Colleen couldn’t look at me.
“The policies were created.”
Vanessa whispered, “And did those people die?”
Nobody answered.
That silence was worse than anything.
I asked again.
“Did they die?”
Colleen slowly nodded.
Three guests stood and walked toward the exit.
Someone started crying.
The officer beside Adrian immediately spoke into his radio.
“We need detectives and additional units at the venue.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
He finally looked afraid.
I stared at Colleen.
“How did they die?”
“Accidents.”
“What kind?”
“A fall.”
She swallowed.
“A drowning.”
Another breath.
“A house fire.”
Vanessa backed into her father.
“And nobody connected them?”
“No.”
“Because they happened in different states,” Colleen said.
I looked at Adrian.
Suddenly I remembered every strange trip we’d taken.
Colorado.
Florida.
Georgia.
Illinois.
He always had a reason.
Work conference.
Friend’s birthday.
Family business.
Had any of those trips been connected to someone else’s death?
My stomach turned.
Then another thought hit me.
“The accident.”
Adrian looked at me.
“What about it?”
“The man who died in your car.”
His face went pale.
“Eric.”
I stepped closer.
“Was that really an accident?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
The officer turned toward him.
“Mr. Parker?”
“I want my lawyer.”
Colleen started crying harder.
“Eric found out.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Mom, please.”
But she was done protecting him.
“Eric worked with Thomas.”
I stared at her.
“What did he find out?”
“He discovered Thomas had started another policy.”
“Mine?”
Colleen nodded.
“Eric wanted out.”
My hands began shaking.
“He threatened to go to the police.”
The room felt suddenly freezing.
“So Adrian lent him his car.”
Colleen covered her face.
“No.”
I looked at Adrian.
“You didn’t lend it to him.”
“Meredith—”
“You put him in it.”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t kill Eric.”
“Then who did?”
He didn’t answer.
I already knew.
“Thomas.”
Colleen whispered the name.
“Thomas arranged the crash.”
The ballroom erupted again.
Adrian stood violently.
“That’s enough!”
The officer grabbed him.
Adrian struggled.
“You don’t understand! None of you understand!”
“Then explain it!” I screamed.
He stopped fighting.
Everyone stared at him.
For the first time, Adrian looked directly at me without pretending.
Without smiling.
Without lying.
And what I saw frightened me.
Not anger.
Fear.
“He was going to kill you anyway.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Adrian’s voice became quiet.
“My father was going to kill you whether I helped him or not.”
Vanessa whispered, “Jesus.”
I couldn’t move.
“When?”
“After our wedding.”
My knees nearly gave out.
Adrian continued.
“The original plan was a honeymoon accident.”
I remembered our honeymoon.
We’d booked a cabin near a mountain lake.
Secluded.
Beautiful.
Private.
I had chosen it.
Or at least I thought I had.
“You suggested the lake.”
He nodded.
My throat tightened.
“You were going to drown me?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Adrian looked away.
“My father was.”
I started crying again, but this time the tears felt different.
They weren’t grief.
They were terror.
The man I’d slept beside.
The man I’d trusted enough to marry.
Had spent months knowing that someone planned to kill me.
“And you were going to let him?”
Adrian’s eyes became wet.
“No.”
I laughed through my tears.
“You staged your own death.”
“Because it was the only way I could stop it.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Eric discovered the plan. He threatened my father. My father killed him.”
Adrian’s voice cracked.
“When Eric died in my car, I realized I was next if I refused.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And let me believe you were dead.”
“I thought my father would cancel the policy.”
“Why would he?”
“Because the beneficiary was me.”
I froze.
If Adrian was legally dead, the policy payout couldn’t go to him.
At least not easily.
For the first time, one part of his story made sense.
But then I looked around the ballroom.
At Vanessa.
At the wedding.
“Then why are you here?”
Adrian said nothing.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Yes.”
Her voice trembled with rage.
“Why are you marrying me?”
He looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Colleen suddenly whispered, “Because Thomas found another way.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked at Vanessa.
“Your family trust.”
Vanessa’s father stiffened.
“What about it?”
Colleen pointed toward Adrian.
“Thomas learned that Vanessa would receive control of nearly twelve million dollars after marriage.”
Vanessa stared at Adrian.
“How?”
Adrian shut his eyes.
Her father stepped forward.
“How did your father know about a private trust?”
Nobody answered.
Then Vanessa whispered, “My uncle.”
Her father looked at her.
“What?”
“Uncle Raymond handled the trust documents.”
“Vanessa…”
“He introduced me to Adrian.”
The room went silent.
My stomach dropped again.
This wasn’t just Adrian and his father.
There were more people.
The officer immediately asked, “Where is Raymond?”
Vanessa looked around the room.
“He was here.”
Guests began looking toward the tables.
One chair near the front was empty.
Vanessa’s father pulled out his phone.
“I saw him ten minutes ago.”
The officer spoke into his radio again.
“We may have another suspect leaving the property.”
Then the lights went out.
People screamed.
Total darkness swallowed the ballroom.
I heard chairs scraping.
Glass breaking.
Someone grabbed my wrist.
I screamed.
“Meredith!”
It was Vanessa.
“I’m here!”
Then I heard Adrian shout.
“Get away from the doors!”
A loud crash came from the hallway.
Someone yelled.
Then the emergency lights flickered on.
Red light flooded the ballroom.
Adrian’s chair was empty.
One officer was lying on the floor.
His handcuffs were hanging open.
“Where is he?” Vanessa shouted.
The second officer pulled his weapon.
“Everyone stay inside!”
But I wasn’t looking for Adrian.
I was looking at Colleen.
Her chair was empty too.
Then my phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A message appeared.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DIE THREE MONTHS AGO.
Another message followed immediately.
ADRIAN RUINED EVERYTHING.
Then a photograph loaded.
It had been taken only seconds earlier.
Colleen stood outside the venue beside a black SUV.
A tall gray-haired man was holding her arm.
I’d never met him.
But I recognized his face from every photograph in Adrian’s childhood home.
Thomas Parker.
The dead father.
Alive.
My phone vibrated one more time.
COME OUTSIDE ALONE, MEREDITH.
OR COLLEEN FINALLY GETS THE FUNERAL SHE DESERVES.
