Chapter 2 - Page Seven.
Naomi Price locked the bridal suite door before she sat down.
She was normally the calmest person Claire knew, but even she checked the hallway twice through the security viewer.
"Don't sign anything else tonight."
Claire almost laughed at how unnecessary the warning sounded.
"I wasn't planning to."
Naomi opened the black folder and removed every page one by one.
The original packet had contained twenty-two pages.
This one had twenty-five.
Three pages had been inserted behind the legitimate prenuptial agreement.
The first authorized a consulting payment to Mercer Strategic Hospitality.
The second granted Ethan temporary access to a Bennett family investment account after the marriage.
The third was worse.
It created a ninety-day voting proxy that would allow Ethan to cast Claire's shares in Bennett Hospitality if she became unavailable.
Claire stared at the language until the words blurred.
"Unavailable means what?"
"It can mean illness, travel, incapacity, or anything defined later by company policy."
Naomi's voice became sharper.
"But this document should never have been placed inside your wedding packet."
Claire remembered Ethan's laughter.
After tomorrow, the rules change.
The insult no longer sounded like drunken arrogance.
It sounded like confidence.
Naomi photographed each suspicious page and emailed copies to her secure office account.
Then she asked who had access to the suite.
Claire listed the wedding planner, her mother, housekeeping, Ethan, and the hotel security team.
"Ethan was here before the rehearsal."
Naomi stopped writing.
"Alone?"
"For maybe fifteen minutes."
Claire remembered him standing near the desk while she finished her makeup.
At the time, he had teased her about reading legal documents on the night before their wedding.
Now the memory felt different.
Naomi recommended calling Claire's mother immediately.
Claire refused.
"Not yet."
"Claire, this could involve your family's company."
"Exactly."
Claire closed the folder.
"If I wake everyone up with an accusation and I'm wrong, Ethan gets time to explain it away."
Naomi studied her.
"And if you're right?"
Claire looked toward the ceiling, knowing Ethan was only three floors above them.
"Then I want to see his face before he knows what I found."
Naomi did not like the idea.
She liked it even less when Claire asked hotel security to send Marcus Reed and Daniel Shaw upstairs.
Both men had worked for the Bennett family for years.
They arrived in matching dark suits, silent and alert.
Claire changed nothing about her appearance.
She kept the white robe on and remained barefoot.
She wanted Ethan to see exactly how little time she had needed to decide that something was wrong.
Marcus glanced at the folder.
"Where are we going?"
"Penthouse lounge, thirty-fourth floor."
The elevator ride was silent.
Warm corridor lights replaced the cool blue glow from Claire's suite.
With every floor, her anger became quieter.
By the time the elevator opened, she no longer felt like the woman who had watched that video call.
She felt focused.
Ethan's private lounge was at the end of the hall behind a heavy wooden door.
Music pulsed softly through it.
Claire walked between Marcus and Daniel with the black folder at her side.
She reached for the handle.
Before she could touch it, the door opened from the inside.
Noah stood there.
The color drained from his face when he saw her.
"Claire."
She looked past him.
Ethan was still laughing inside.
"Move, Noah."
He did not.
Instead, he looked at the folder in her hand and whispered something that changed the night again.
"If you found page seven, don't let Ethan know you know about the account."
Claire's eyes narrowed.
"What account?"
May you like
Noah swallowed.
"The one in Zurich."
