Chapter 6 - The Signature in Red.
The first champagne glass shattered before Victor reached the microphone.
No one knew who dropped it.
Everyone remembered the sound.
It cut through the ballroom just as Victor tapped the microphone and asked the band to stop playing.
Celeste remained beside Adrian at the center table.
Her hand rested lightly on his arm, but her fingers were digging into his sleeve.
"Smile," she whispered.
Adrian looked at her.
"You hurt my sister."
"Your sister hurt herself by choosing today to be stupid."
"You hit her."
Celeste's jaw tightened.
"And you married me anyway."
Adrian looked toward Victor.
His father was already watching him.
Victor raised his glass.
"I was supposed to welcome a daughter into my family tonight."
A few guests smiled uncertainly.
Celeste lifted her chin.
"Instead, I need to ask my family a question."
The room quieted.
"What do we owe the truth when telling it humiliates us?"
Celeste's expression froze.
Victor continued.
"Do we bury it because guests are watching?"
He glanced at Adrian.
"Do we postpone courage because the photographs have already been taken?"
No one moved.
Then Claire stepped beside her father.
She turned her back to the guests.
With trembling hands, she lowered the emerald fabric enough to reveal the bruises.
The reaction was immediate.
Gasps rippled through the room.
Someone whispered, "Oh my God."
Adrian dropped to his knees.
Celeste stared at Claire with naked hatred.
Victor pointed at her.
"Look at the monster standing before you!"
The confrontation unfolded exactly as Claire had feared and exactly as Celeste had not expected.
The bride screamed.
Adrian apologized.
Celeste lunged.
Victor stopped her.
The sharp defensive slap turned her sideways.
Then the screens went black.
The ballroom plunged into confusion.
This time, Claire knew the blackout was not a technical failure.
Owen was moving.
She shouted over the noise.
"Tessa!"
No answer came.
The scream behind the service doors cut off suddenly.
Victor grabbed the microphone even though it was dead.
"Nobody leaves this room."
The emergency lights came on in pale strips along the walls.
Guests reached for their phones.
Celeste laughed.
"Perfect."
Claire turned toward her.
"Where is Tessa?"
"Who?"
"Don't."
Claire moved closer.
"Where is she?"
Celeste looked at the dark screens.
"You wanted a public performance."
She smiled.
"Now you get one."
The ballroom doors suddenly locked with a heavy mechanical click.
Several guests rushed toward them.
Victor's security chief, Marcus Reed, appeared from the west corridor.
"Sir, the building controls have been overridden."
"By whom?"
"We're tracing it."
"Find Tessa."
Marcus nodded and disappeared.
Claire pulled the original transfer from her phone case.
"Dad."
Victor took it.
He studied the signature.
His eyes narrowed.
"This isn't mine."
"I know."
He turned the page over.
There was a small red handwritten notation on the back.
Victor stared at it.
"What is that?" Claire asked.
He did not answer immediately.
The notation was not Celeste's.
Victor recognized the handwriting.
It belonged to Samuel Price, the Hale family's attorney of twenty-seven years.
The note read only four words.
APPROVED AFTER CEREMONY EXECUTES.
Victor looked across the ballroom.
May you like
Samuel was seated at table seven.
His chair was empty.
