Chapter 3 - The Six Contracts
Daniel found Claire in the bridal suite.
She had removed her shoes.
Her veil lay across a chair.
Marianne Bennett, Claire’s mother, stood by the mirror holding a glass of water.
When Daniel entered, Marianne immediately sensed something was wrong.
“I’ll give you two privacy.”
Claire grabbed her wrist.
“No. Stay.”
Daniel closed the door.
“Mom left.”
Claire crossed her arms.
“Good.”
The word landed harder than Daniel expected.
“Claire.”
“She spent the entire night making everything about her.”
“She barely spoke.”
“She didn’t need to.”
“Stop.”
Claire stared.
Daniel almost never used that tone.
He continued.
“She didn’t cancel anything.”
Claire looked away.
“I never said she would.”
“You told your bridesmaids she was threatening to shut down the wedding.”
“Because that is what the phone call sounded like.”
“No. She asked what was under her name.”
“Same difference.”
“It isn’t.”
Claire folded her arms tighter.
Daniel took out his phone.
“Why is there a Gmail account pretending to be my mother?”
Claire froze.
Only briefly.
But Daniel saw it.
“It isn’t pretending.”
“What is it?”
“Wedding administration.”
“Whose idea?”
“Mine.”
Daniel waited.
Claire lifted her chin.
“Your mother never answered messages quickly. Vendors needed decisions. I made a separate address so everything stayed organized.”
“Using her name.”
“Because she was the contract holder.”
“And her photograph?”
“So vendors knew who the account represented.”
Marianne quietly set down her water.
Daniel continued.
“Did Mom know?”
Claire did not answer.
“Claire.”
“No.”
“Did she authorize you to send messages as her?”
“She authorized ninety-two thousand dollars.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I was organizing our wedding.”
“Did you sign her name?”
Claire’s expression sharpened.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
Daniel felt something inside him drop.
Not I would never.
Not that’s crazy.
“What did she tell you?*”
He lowered his voice.
“Did you sign her name?”
“I approved changes we had already discussed.”
“With who?”
“You.”
Daniel laughed once.
“We discussed flowers. We discussed extending the bar. I never agreed Mom would pay for it.”
“You said your family could handle it.”
“That doesn’t mean forge my mother’s signature.”
Marianne stepped forward.
“Daniel, nobody forged—”
“Please.”
He looked at Claire’s mother.
“Not right now.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“You’re taking her side on our wedding night.”
“This isn’t a side.”
“It always is with you.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire continued.
“Every disagreement comes down to whether Eleanor approves.”
“That doesn’t answer what happened.”
“Because you don’t want an answer.”
“What does that mean?”
“You want me to say I’m some greedy woman who married into a rich family and started signing checks.”
“I haven’t said that.”
“You don’t have to.”
The words echoed something she had said to Eleanor.
Daniel suddenly understood why.
Claire had been carrying this argument long before tonight.
But understanding it did not make the facts disappear.
“Transportation tried to charge a card in my name.”
Claire stopped.
Marianne turned.
“What?”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Did you give them my card?”
“No.”
“Does your father have one?”
Claire’s eyes shifted.
There.
Another answer.
“Claire.”
“Dad was helping manage final payments.”
“With my credit card?”
“It was the wedding account.”
“I don’t have a wedding card ending in 1844.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
Daniel opened his banking app.
He had three cards.
None ended in 1844.
“I don’t know that account.”
For the first time, Claire looked genuinely confused.
Marianne whispered, “Maybe Richard opened—”
Then stopped.
Daniel looked at her.
“Opened what?”
Marianne shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Mrs. Bennett.”
Claire snapped, “Daniel, enough.”
He turned back.
“Your father gave a vendor a card with my name on it.”
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel studied her.
He believed that part.
Maybe.
That frightened him almost as much as if she had admitted everything.
Because it meant the wedding finances were not only between him, Claire, and Eleanor.
Richard Bennett was inside them too.
Daniel took a step back.
“I’m going downstairs.”
Claire stared.
“Are you seriously leaving me alone on our wedding night?”
“I need air.”
“This is what she wanted.”
Daniel stopped at the door.
“No.”
Claire’s voice broke.
“You don’t see it.”
He looked back.
“She pays for something, then she owns the room. She owns the decision. She owns you.”
Daniel almost defended Eleanor automatically.
Then remembered how many times his mother had solved his problems before he had asked.
How many decisions she had made because she was usually right.
Claire was not inventing everything.
But neither was she answering the questions.
Daniel opened the door.
“Tomorrow morning, we sit down with every contract.”
Claire looked at him.
“All six?”
“All six.”
“And my father?”
Daniel held her gaze.
“Especially your father.”
When he reached the ballroom, he found Richard Bennett standing alone beside the bar.
Richard was sixty-one, silver-haired, charismatic, and always perfectly dressed.
He smiled when Daniel approached.
“Hell of a night.”
Daniel stopped in front of him.
“What is the card ending in 1844?”
Richard’s smile remained for half a second too long.
Then disappeared.
And Daniel knew before the man answered that the next morning was not going to save his marriage.
May you like
It was going to expose it.
---
