Chapter 10 - The Wedding She Refused to Cancel
The next morning, Victoria Kensington sent out a press release announcing that her wedding to Nathan Cole would proceed as scheduled.
Nathan read it twice because the first time felt unreal.
The statement described Nathan as a man under extraordinary emotional pressure who had been manipulated by a former employee.
It referred to Grace as a disturbed woman exploiting a child for financial gain.
It said Victoria remained committed to supporting her fiancé through a temporary crisis.
Grace lowered the tablet slowly.
"She is still pretending you're marrying her."
Nathan's mouth tightened.
"She needs the marriage trigger."
Evelyn nodded.
"And she needs the public to believe the relationship is intact long enough to create ambiguity around any cancellation."
Nathan looked at the date.
Thirteen days remained until the wedding.
"Cancel everything publicly."
Evelyn hesitated.
"We can, but understand what she is setting up."
"Tell me."
"If you cancel while she claims you are mentally compromised by Grace's manipulation, she can petition the trust court for temporary enforcement of the engagement agreement."
Nathan laughed in disbelief.
"An engagement agreement?"
"Your father signed one with Victor when you were twenty-one."
"I was dating someone else when I was twenty-one."
"Apparently that did not matter to them."
Grace stared at the floor.
Nathan noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Grace."
She looked up.
"This is what they always did."
"What?"
"Made decisions first and let you believe they were yours later."
Nathan did not defend himself.
The truth had become too obvious.
He canceled the wedding in a live statement from Evelyn's office.
He did not mention Lily's paternity as a confirmed fact because DNA testing had not yet been completed.
He did say that Victoria had assaulted Grace and that evidence of long-term fraud was under criminal investigation.
The clip went viral within an hour.
Cole Industries shares fell twelve percent.
Kensington Capital shares rose.
Nathan watched the market reaction with grim amusement.
"They are betting she wins."
Evelyn closed her laptop.
"Markets love certainty."
"Then let's make them uncertain."
Nathan ordered an independent forensic audit of every transaction between Cole and Kensington entities over twenty years.
He released the board from confidentiality regarding the attempted suspension vote.
He invited federal investigators to examine the legacy trust.
Then he did something that horrified his financial advisers.
He froze all discretionary distributions from the Cole family trust, including his own.
"You could lose access to hundreds of millions in liquid assets," his chief financial officer warned.
"Good."
"Good?"
"If the money is being used to finance crimes, I don't want access to it."
The CFO stared at him.
Nathan ended the call.
Grace stood near the window.
"You really would burn it down."
He looked at her.
"I told you I would."
"People say things when they're angry."
"I'm not angry anymore."
Grace raised an eyebrow.
"You look angry."
"I'm past angry."
He walked closer.
"I spent five years believing you chose to leave."
Grace lowered her eyes.
"I spent five years believing that if I came back, your family would take Lily."
"And now?"
Grace looked toward the room where Lily was playing.
"Now I'm afraid they'll kill her instead."
Nathan's face hardened.
"They won't."
Grace's eyes flashed.
"Do not promise what you cannot control."
He stopped.
She was right again.
"Then I promise I won't stop fighting."
Grace held his gaze.
"That I believe."
A DNA specialist arrived that afternoon.
Nathan and Lily submitted cheek swabs under chain-of-custody procedures.
Lily thought the swab tickled and laughed.
Nathan nearly broke at the sound.
Afterward, she asked him a question he had been dreading.
"Were you lost?"
Nathan crouched beside her.
"What do you mean?"
"Mommy said you didn't know where we were."
"That's true."
"So were you lost from us?"
Nathan swallowed.
"I think we were all lost from each other."
Lily considered this carefully.
"But we found you."
Nathan smiled despite everything.
"Yes."
"Then it's okay."
Children could forgive distances adults had built entire lives around.
Nathan wished he could borrow that simplicity.
At four p.m., Mills arrived with news about Sloane.
He was alive.
Police had found him in a motel outside Albany with a gunshot wound through his side.
He was in surgery under guard.
Nathan exhaled.
"Did he say anything?"
"One thing before they sedated him."
"What?"
Mills looked at Grace before answering.
"He said Victoria wasn't the one who shot him."
Nathan frowned.
"Her voice was on the phone."
"He says she was there."
"Then who fired?"
"He couldn't give a name."
Mills opened his notebook.
"He said, 'The woman from the house.'"
Grace went rigid.
Nathan noticed immediately.
"What woman?"
Grace shook her head.
"I don't know."
Mills watched her.
"Your face says otherwise."
Grace sat down slowly.
"There was a woman who came with Richard the first time he threatened me."
Nathan leaned forward.
"You never mentioned her."
"She didn't speak."
"What did she look like?"
Grace closed her eyes, searching memory.
"Maybe fifty then."
"Hair?"
"Dark."
"Name?"
"Richard called her Helen."
Nathan felt every muscle in his body tighten.
Evelyn looked at him.
"You know her."
Nathan nodded slowly.
"Helen Mercer."
Grace opened her eyes.
"Who is she?"
Nathan's voice was almost a whisper.
"My godmother."
Grace stared.
Nathan continued.
"She was my mother's older sister."
The room went silent.
Helen Mercer had disappeared from Nathan's life after Caroline's funeral.
Richard told him she could not cope with the grief.
Nathan had received birthday cards from her for three years, then nothing.
He had assumed she moved overseas.
Now Grace was telling him Helen had stood silently beside Richard while he threatened a pregnant woman years later.
"Why would my mother's sister help him?"
No one answered.
Nathan searched for Helen through private databases.
Her address appeared in Westchester County.
The property owner made Nathan's blood run cold.
Kensington Family Holdings.
A security camera image from the property loaded on Marcus's screen.
An older woman stepped from a black sedan.
Grace leaned closer.
Her face drained of color.
"That's her."
Nathan stared at the woman who had once held him at his mother's funeral.
Then Marcus enlarged the passenger emerging behind Helen.
It was Edwin Shaw.
May you like
Alive.
And walking freely beside her.
