Chapter 5

### Chapter 5

"Are you insane?"

Lucian grabbed Chloe's wrist hard.

"What good does saying any of this do you?"

Simon stepped forward and pulled his hand away.

Chloe rubbed her wrist and laughed coldly. "Why panic? Her mom only begged you to cancel the engagement and let her daughter go."

I slowly turned my head and looked at Lucian.

"Why did she beg you?"

He didn't look at me.

"What else have you been hiding from me?"

"Your mom was ill and emotionally unstable." He tugged at his tie. "She always had something against me. You know that."

I stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar.

"I asked why she had to beg you!"

My mother had supported the Sinclair family for years. She had never bowed to anyone.

She could have told me to end the engagement or stopped working with him. Why had she needed to beg?

Besides money, what else had he used to threaten her?

Lucian was silent for a moment, and the panic in his eyes slowly faded.

"She's already dead."

"Does anything she said still matter?"

My hand on his collar loosened, bit by bit.

It mattered.

I would find out what she had suffered before she died and who she had seen.

But he wasn't going to tell me.

Pressing him here would only reveal what I still hadn't uncovered.

I stepped back and braced myself against the edge of the table.

Chloe had already hooked her arm through Simon's and was heading for the door.

Lucian reached out to pull her back.

"Chloe, if you leave with him today, don't ever come back."

She didn't even turn her head.

"I wasn't planning to come back anyway."

I remembered Simon's name, and his words: We have what we came for.

Whatever lay between them involved more than an affair.

Lucian followed her a few steps before the reporters surrounded him again.

I took the chance to walk over to the memorial portrait, open the frame, and take out my mother's photo.

The frame's corner scraped my fingertip. I remembered taking that photograph: Mom had thought she was smiling too broadly and insisted I delete it.

I couldn't bring myself to.

And I couldn't bring myself to leave her here now, either.

Mitchell took my arm.

"Miss Sinclair, let's get your wounds treated first."

I put the photo in my bag, unfastened the small floral pin the stylist had attached to my dress, and set it on the table.

Lucian came out of the crowd just in time to see it.

"Celeste, leave the phone."

"What else do you want to take from me?"

"There's something wrong with what was in the car. I'll get to the bottom of it."

I looked at him and suddenly asked, "You didn't even ask what was playing in there, and you already know something's wrong with it?"

His expression stiffened.

Kyle walked over and blocked my way.

"Lucian told you to leave it. Don't think a few photos give you power over him."

I raised my phone and played a short clip of audio my brother had sent back to me.

"Mention a dying wish, put a ring on her finger, and she climbs right into the wedding car like a good girl, doesn't she?"

Lucian's voice rang out clearly.

I hit pause.

The reporters closed in. "Mr. Hayes, did you invent her mother's dying wish?"

"Did you use the deceased's wishes to pressure Miss Sinclair into continuing the engagement?"

Lucian stared hard at me.

I met his gaze and didn't back down again.

"Someone else has the complete recording. If anything of mine goes missing here today, someone will keep coming to you for answers."

With that, I removed Lucian from the wedding planning chat and sent the guests a message: The wedding is canceled. Please direct any questions to the planner.

"The engagement is off. Anything else goes through my lawyer."

Kyle still tried to reach for me.

Lucian finally spoke. "Let her go."

His expression was grim, but he kept his anger in check.

"She won't listen right now. After a night to cool off, she'll know to come home."

I didn't look back.

The venue doors closed behind me, and the evening breeze sent a chill through my wounds.

A black SUV was parked at the bottom of the steps. Mitchell helped me into the back seat.

"Mr. Sinclair has arranged for you to be seen at another hospital. We'll get your injuries treated. He'll come straight there when he lands."

I looked down to make sure I still had my phone, and my mother's photo too.

Only once we passed the intersection did I release my grip. My hands had gone numb.

My brother called, too.

"Cece, I'm coming to you now!"