Chapter 3 - THE COLLATERAL DAMAGEThe silence in the ballroom was absolute. You could have heard a snowflake hit the reinforced glass windows.
Claire stared at Mason, her eyes wide and unblinking, as if she were looking at a stranger whose skin was slowly peeling away to reveal a monster underneath. The romantic illusion of the day—the fairy-tale wedding under winter peaks—had been violently shattered, replaced by the ugly, fluorescent-lit reality of a criminal investigation.
“Mason,” Claire whispered, her voice trembling with a mixture of shock and white-hot humiliation. “The startup funding... my father gave you two million dollars last year to expand your software firm. You told me the company accounts were tied up in a merger... you told me that’s why we had to use my personal trust for our down payment on the penthouse.”
Mason didn’t answer her. He couldn't. He was staring at Arthur Whitmore, whose expression had morphed from calculated curiosity into a mask of pure, murderous rage.
“You stole from my company?” Arthur’s voice was barely a whisper, but it carried the weight of a sledgehammer. “You embezzled from Whitmore Enterprises to fund your little double life?”
“Arthur, wait, let me explain—it’s an accounting error, it was a bridge loan, I was going to pay it back once the new round of venture capital cleared—” Mason stumbled over his words, his hands fluttering nervously in front of him like a trapped bird.
“You embezzled from me,” Arthur repeated, stepping forward and jabbing a thick, diamond-ringed finger into Mason’s chest. “You thought you could marry my daughter, take over a division of my company, and bleed my accounts dry while playing family with a wife and a child you tried to murder?”
“I didn’t try to murder anyone!” Mason shrieked, finally snapping under the intense pressure. The polished groom was completely gone, replaced by a desperate, sweating coward. He pointed a shaking finger at me. “She’s lying! She’s a manipulative parasite! She wouldn't sign the divorce papers, she threatened to ruin my career, she drove me to the edge! I didn't leave her in a blizzard on purpose, she jumped out of the car during an argument! It was an accident!”
An audible gasp echoed through the room.
Mason froze.
He had just contradicted his own lie. A second ago, he claimed there was no storm and no incident on Blackwood Ridge. Now, in his panic, he had just admitted that we were there, and that he had left me.
May you like
The color drained entirely from his face as he realized what he had just said. He slowly turned his head to look at the guests, then at Claire, then at the two police officers who had just quietly pushed open the heavy oak doors at the back of the ballroom, having slipped in unnoticed during the confrontation.
“Mason Sterling,” the lead officer said, his voice calm and professional as he stepped down the aisle with handcuffs gleaming in his hand. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
