Chapter 2 – The Man Behind the Bride
Detective Rachel Monroe replayed Amelia's interrogation all night.
She never denied poisoning the champagne.
Instead, she repeated the same sentence.
"I was following orders."
But whose?
Three days later, investigators unlocked Amelia's encrypted phone.
Thousands of deleted messages were recovered.
Every one led back to a single contact saved only as...
Guardian.
The phone number belonged to no registered citizen.
Payments to Amelia, however, had arrived every month through shell companies scattered across three countries.
The money totaled nearly twelve million dollars.
Ethan couldn't understand.
"Who would pay someone that much just to kill me?"
Rachel slid an old newspaper across the table.
A headline from twenty-eight years earlier.
LOCAL BUSINESSMAN DIES IN MYSTERIOUS YACHT EXPLOSION.
The victim's photograph made Ethan's blood freeze.
His father.
Officially, it had been ruled an accident.
Rachel shook her head.
"We reopened the case."
She laid down another folder.
"The explosives."
"The forged insurance claims."
"The missing witnesses."
"They all connect to one man."
Victor Langford.
Ethan's godfather.
The man who had raised him after his father's death.
The man sitting in the front row at the wedding...
pretending to wipe away tears.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Victor wasn't protecting Ethan.
He had been controlling him.
The inheritance.
The company.
The family trust.
One obstacle remained before Victor gained complete ownership.
Ethan.
The wedding wasn't about love.
It was supposed to be the perfect murder.
A tragic groom...
dead from an apparent heart attack after celebrating his marriage.
No suspects.
No questions.
Just billions changing hands.
Rachel looked Ethan in the eye.
"We're going to need your help."
"You'll have to convince Victor you never saw the footage."
Ethan nodded.
"I'll attend the dinner."
May you like
"And I'll let him believe..."
"...his plan worked."
