Chapter 2: The Truth Everyone Heard
Chapter 2: The Truth Everyone Heard
Panic spread through the ballroom.
Five hundred guests waited without food.
Phones quietly appeared beneath the tables.
Someone began recording.
Victoria pulled Ethan aside.
"Call the bank."
"They already denied us."
"What about investors?"
"They won't answer."
"My parents?"
"They already refused."
The wedding planner approached carefully.
"There is... another possibility."
Ethan looked up.
"What?"
She hesitated.
"The person responsible for today's payments..."
"Who is it?"
She swallowed.
"Your mother."
The words hit harder than any slap.
Victoria blinked.
"What?"
The planner opened the contract folder.
Every agreement carried the same signature.
Margaret Anne Carter.
Every invoice.
Every deposit.
Every guarantee.
Every vendor.
Ethan stared at the pages.
"No."
The hotel manager nodded.
"Your mother paid every dollar."
Victoria shook her head.
"That's impossible."
"It isn't."
Ethan suddenly remembered.
The mysterious florist who had smiled warmly at his mother during the rehearsal.
The photographer who greeted her by name.
The orchestra conductor who thanked her quietly in the hallway.
He had assumed they simply recognized an elderly guest.
Now he understood.
They weren't greeting a guest.
They were greeting the client.
Across the ballroom, whispers became conversations.
"His mother paid?"
"He threw her out."
"Oh my God..."
Victoria's father slowly stood.
"You told everyone you financed this yourselves."
Victoria couldn't answer.
Ethan looked toward the entrance.
His mother was gone.
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For the first time in years...
Fear replaced pride.
