Chapter 7 - THE CRACKED MIRROR
By 8:00 PM, the grand ballroom was an empty tomb of melted ice sculptures and abandoned silk shawls. The high-society wedding of the season had become the scandal of the decade.
Inside the private holding room of the precinct downtown, Celeste sat on a cold metal bench, the heavy lace train of her wedding dress dragging across the dirty linoleum floor. The veil had been torn off, her blonde hair disheveled, her face streaked with real, unadulterated terror. The theatrical tears she had used as a weapon since childhood were completely useless here.
Marlene sat opposite her, staring blankly at the brick wall, her jaw locked in a tight, defensive line.
The heavy iron door clicked open, and Daniel walked into the room, accompanied by the Sterling family's chief legal counsel. He had stripped off his wedding bow tie, his collar unbuttoned, looking exhausted but fiercely focused.
"Daniel!" Celeste shrieked, lunging forward until the chains of her small holding cell stopped her. "You brought the lawyers? Please, get me out of here! Father is at the hospital, and the doctors say he suffered an acute heart attack. I am so scared!"
Daniel didn't look at her with an ounce of the warmth he had possessed when they stood at the altar. He stood behind the glass partition, his eyes dark.
"I didn't bring the lawyers for you, Celeste," Daniel said, his voice entirely flat, carrying the weight of a final judgment. "My family has just filed for an immediate, absolute annulment of the marriage based on criminal fraud and material misrepresentation. You were never my wife. You were just a Trojan horse sent by your mother to strip my company of its assets."
"Daniel, no! I loved you! I didn't know the extent of what mom was doing!" Celeste sobbed, her voice echoing hollowly off the concrete walls.
"You signed the wire authorizations, Celeste," Daniel's attorney cut in, sliding a series of photocopied documents against the glass. "You used your private login codes to leak the proprietary tech data. The metadata proves the files were accessed from your personal laptop during your bridal shower. The evidence is absolute."
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Marlene finally looked up, her venomous glare fixed on Daniel. "You think you've won, boy? Thomas still has international holdings. We will tie your family up in litigation for the next ten years."
"Thomas Vance filed for corporate bankruptcy twenty minutes ago, Mrs. Vance," Daniel said quietly. "Every single asset you thought you had has been seized to cover the predatory loans you took out in his name. You didn't just ruin this day, Marlene. You ruined your entire family. And the only person who tried to stop it was Emma—the daughter you treated like garbage."
