Chapter 3 - The Cottage
The first dance never happened.
Daniel moved the immediate family into a private lounge behind the ballroom.
Claire followed.
Robert blocked the doorway.
“No.”
“I’m his wife.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Stay outside.”
Claire’s face hardened.
“Daniel.”
“Outside.”
Inside, Margaret sat wrapped in a hotel robe while a medic checked her ankle.
Just swelling, cuts, and exhaustion.
Daniel knelt in front of her.
“Why didn’t you call Dad?”
“I tried.”
“With what?”
She gave him a tired look.
“Exactly.”
The cottage had a landline, but the cord had been removed.
No neighboring house within sight.
The driver, a man named Wade, told Margaret Claire had arranged everything because she needed “quiet.”
He carried her suitcase inside.
Then asked for her phone.
“Claire said Daniel doesn’t want you getting upset by wedding pictures.”
Margaret refused.
Wade said the car would not leave until she handed it over.
She gave it to him because she believed her son wanted space.
Daniel covered his face.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret touched his wrist.
“Not yet.”
She had used the same words when he was a teenager and apologized too quickly after doing something stupid.
Understand first.
Apologize later.
Robert placed the envelope on the table.
“This arrived at our house Friday morning.”
Margaret frowned.
“I mailed it Thursday.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside were copies of invoices from the Hayes Family Foundation.
Brightwell Events.
$48,000.
$72,500.
$91,000.
$63,400.
Hundreds of thousands in payments.
Daniel frowned.
“What is Brightwell?”
Margaret looked at him.
“That’s what I asked Claire.”
Robert said:
“And that is when Claire decided your mother was suddenly too unstable to attend the wedding.”
Daniel read the total.
$612,900.
Then he saw the signature approving the payments.
Margaret Hayes.
May you like
His mother shook her head.
“I never signed any of them.”
