CHAPTER 3 – The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
The ballroom had become a battlefield.
Guests screamed.
Security rushed toward the old man.
Reporters fought for the best camera angle as the wedding livestream shattered viewing records across social media.
Alexander Blackwood never took his eyes off the elderly stranger.
For the first time...
Fear flickered across the billionaire's face.
"Take him away," Alexander ordered coldly.
Four bodyguards charged toward the entrance.
But before they could reach him, the old man threw the blood-stained leather folder across the marble floor.
It slid directly to Emily's feet.
"Open it!" he shouted.
"Before they destroy the evidence!"
Emily stared at the folder.
Alexander moved first.
"No!"
His calm mask finally cracked.
He lunged toward her, but Olivia stepped between them.
"Alexander!" she yelled.
"What are you hiding?"
The room fell silent.
Emily slowly bent down and picked up the folder.
Inside were dozens of documents.
Medical records.
Marriage certificates.
Death certificates.
Bank transfers.
And one photograph that made her blood freeze.
It showed Alexander standing beside another bride.
The same woman from the anonymous photograph.
Only this picture had been taken moments after their wedding.
She was smiling.
Beautiful.
Alive.
On the back, someone had written three words in red ink.
HER NAME WAS VICTORIA.
Emily turned another page.
Her heart nearly stopped.
Victoria Blackwood.
Married to Alexander Blackwood.
Declared dead...
Only twelve days after their wedding.
Official cause of death:
Accidental drowning during their honeymoon in Italy.
Emily looked up.
"Tell me this isn't true."
Alexander's jaw tightened.
"It was an accident."
The old man laughed bitterly.
"No."
"It was murder."
Gasps echoed through the ballroom.
Guests instinctively stepped backward.
Even the minister quietly left the altar.
Alexander pointed at the old man.
"He's lying."
The stranger slowly removed his soaked coat.
Underneath was an old police uniform.
Retired Detective Samuel Hayes.
The lead investigator assigned to Victoria's death three years earlier.
"I spent three years trying to prove what happened," Samuel said.
"Every witness disappeared."
"Every piece of evidence vanished."
"Every judge who touched the case suddenly changed their decision."
He looked directly at Emily.
"Until someone inside the Blackwood family contacted me last week."
Everyone turned toward Olivia.
She looked horrified.
"It wasn't me..."
Then another voice echoed from the balcony above.
"No."
"It was me."
Every head turned upward.
Standing on the second-floor staircase was an elegant woman dressed entirely in black.
Her face was partially hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat.
She slowly removed it.
The ballroom exploded into screams.
Alexander staggered backward.
His face turned white.
His lips trembled.
"No..."
"That's impossible..."
Emily looked at the woman... then at the photograph in her trembling hands.
The same eyes.
The same face.
The same woman who had supposedly died three years ago.
Victoria smiled.
A slow, chilling smile.
Then she spoke the words that shattered Alexander's world forever.
"I wasn't your first wife..."
May you like
"I was your first survivor."
End of Chapter 3...
