Chapter 6 - THE SCRIPT THEY NEVER WANTED ME TO SEE
Hayes delivered the production folder through his attorney.
It contained schedules, internal emails, draft scripts, payment records, and a series of notes from meetings held before the wedding.
Evelyn reviewed the material with the forensic accountant and Detective Brooks, who was investigating the assault.
The first important discovery was an email exchange between Saskia and the production director.
Saskia had written:
Marin won't play along if she knows we're filming a confrontation. We need something that feels spontaneous.
The director replied:
We can build tension around the family toast. No one should be physically harmed. Any breakaway prop must be tested and approved.
Saskia responded:
Leave it to me. She always overreacts.
That exchange did not establish who had altered the glass or whether Saskia knew it would cause injury.
But it contradicted her public claim that the confrontation had been an entirely spontaneous misunderstanding.
The production team had been planning a conflict involving me.
Another email showed that the edited clip had been prepared within hours of the reception.
The editor had received instructions to begin the video after the impact and emphasize my reaction.
The message read:
Start with her pushing Saskia away. We need the audience to wonder what happened before the clip begins.
A second instruction requested a warm color grade to make the blood less visually prominent.
I felt sick reading it.
The footage had not merely been shortened for convenience.
Someone had deliberately selected the moment that made me look guilty.
The financial review uncovered another troubling fact.
The production company had classified several payments as expenses for promotional content, but the underlying records were incomplete. Some invoices did not match the services described in the contracts.
The forensic accountant was careful not to call every discrepancy fraud. Some might have resulted from poor accounting, incomplete records, or misclassified expenses.
Others required further investigation.
The trust's independent trustee froze certain discretionary distributions while the review continued. That action was intended to preserve assets, not declare anyone guilty.
My father reacted as though the family had been attacked.
He called me repeatedly.
I answered only once.
“You've gone too far,” he said.
“Did you know about the production plan?”
“No.”
“Did you know my signature was on the transfer authorization?”
“I told you I didn't sign it.”
“Then help the investigators determine who did.”
He exhaled sharply.
“You don't understand how much this could cost your sister.”
“I understand exactly what it has already cost me.”
“She could lose her company.”
“Then the company needs to explain its records.”
He went quiet.
Finally, he said, “Your grandmother would never have wanted this.”
I looked at the letter beside my desk.
“Your mother wanted the trust protected. That's what we're doing.”
He hung up.
Later that evening, I received a message from Saskia.
You're enjoying this. Admit it. You finally have a reason to make me look bad.
I didn't answer.
Instead, I sent the message to Evelyn, who added it to the preserved record of communications.
The next morning, Detective Brooks asked me to come to the station to review a new development.
The forensic examination of the crystal fragments had found adhesive residue and abrasive particles consistent with deliberate alteration.
The report did not identify who had modified the glass.
Investigators were still examining how the material had been applied and whether the recovered fragments could be matched to a specific glass from the venue.
But the findings supported the conclusion that the fragments had not simply resulted from an ordinary crystal glass breaking during an accidental collision.
I sat very still.
“Does that mean the assault was planned?”
“It means the glass requires further investigation,” Brooks replied. “The production records suggest a planned confrontation. We need to establish who knew what about the prop and when.”
I appreciated her honesty.
The truth was becoming clearer, but it was not yet complete.
That afternoon, Evelyn received a formal response from the production company's attorney.
The company disputed any wrongdoing and claimed that the footage had been edited for dramatic pacing rather than to misrepresent the incident.
It also argued that the appearance release bearing my signature authorized broad editorial discretion.
Evelyn responded that I denied signing the release and that the document's authenticity was under investigation.
Then the company made a mistake.
Its lawyer attached a copy of the original release, including the electronic-signature audit information.
The audit trail showed that the document had been submitted from a device linked to the production office.
That did not prove who had used the device.
But the timestamp matched a period when I had been at my office across town, attending a meeting documented on my firm's calendar and security records.
The evidence made the claimed authorization increasingly difficult to explain.
Evelyn forwarded the information to the investigators.
For the first time, I felt that my family could no longer rely on the assumption that I would become exhausted and give up.
Then Saskia scheduled a press conference.
She announced that she would reveal “the truth behind the wedding scandal.”
I watched from home with Evelyn beside me.
Saskia appeared before a wall bearing her lifestyle brand's logo.
She described the wedding as a private family event that had been distorted by malicious rumors.
She accused me of using my professional connections to intimidate her business partners.
Then she produced a photograph of herself holding a crystal glass.
“This was an ordinary wedding glass,” she said. “There was no plan to hurt anyone.”
The photograph showed a glass.
It did not show the glass that struck me.
It did not establish who had handled it.
And it certainly did not explain the adhesive and abrasive material recovered from my scalp.
Saskia concluded by saying she hoped I would seek help and stop attacking her.
Evelyn switched off the television.
“She's betting that people will confuse confidence with evidence.”
I looked at the photograph still displayed on the screen.
“Will they?”
“Some will. Others won't. We don't control that.”
“What do we control?”
Evelyn closed her notebook.
“What we can prove.”
That evening, I prepared for a different kind of fight.
Not another public argument.
Not a counter-video.
A formal presentation of the facts to the people responsible for determining what had happened.
The original recording.
The production schedule.
The altered release.
The financial authorization.
The medical documentation.
The forensic report.
May you like
One by one, the pieces were coming together.
And Saskia's own production files were providing the clearest picture yet of the machinery behind her perfect image.
