Chapter 4 - The Web of Deceit
“Mommy, is Uncle Noah mad at Miss Allison?” Lily asked quietly, tugging at Rachel’s fingers.
Rachel gently pulled her daughter behind her skirt, shielding the little girl from the storm brewing in the hallway. “Aunt Allison did something very bad, sweetheart. Stay close to Mommy.”
Allison’s eyes flashed with venom as she glared at the child. “If you hadn't been snooping around my dressing room, none of this would have happened, Rachel! You ruined everything!”
“You pushed my daughter!” Rachel shouted, stepping forward, every maternal instinct flaring. “You shoved a six-year-old into a wall to snatch my phone because you knew I had the audio recording of you and Grant in that hotel suite! You think I just found paperwork? I heard every single word you said to him!”
Noah’s head snapped toward Allison. “An audio recording?”
“She’s lying!” Allison cried, turning back to Noah, tears finally spilling down her cheeks in a desperate attempt to regain control of the narrative. “Noah, baby, look at me! I love you! Everything I did, I did to protect our future! What kind of marriage would we have had if your company crashed? If we lost the house? Grant approached me because he knew I had your best interests at heart!”
“My best interests?” Noah let out a harsh, disbelieving breath. He flipped to the third page of the document. “Section Four, Paragraph B: ‘Upon the formal registration of marriage between Noah Holloway and Allison Vance, the escrow deposit of five million dollars shall be transferred directly to the personal account of Allison Vance as an independent consulting fee.’”
The hallway became utterly airless.
The best man, Marcus, who had just walked out of the ballroom to see what was taking so long, froze mid-stride, his mouth slightly open.
Noah looked up from the paper, his eyes like two chips of glacial ice. “Five million dollars, Allison. My father wasn't giving us a wedding gift. He was paying you a bounty for delivering me back into his corporate jurisdiction.”
Allison’s lips trembled, but no words came out. The pristine mask of the blushing bride had shattered beyond repair.
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“You never loved me,” Noah said, the realization settling into his chest like poison. “From the moment we met at that charity gala eighteen months ago... it was all orchestrated, wasn't it? He put you in my path.”
Allison opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a single syllable, the heavy oak doors at the main entrance of the venue swung open with a resounding crash.
