CHAPTER 9: The Groom's Impossible Secret
Every eye in the morgue turned toward Ryan.
"No..." Olivia whispered.
Ryan stood frozen, his face drained of color.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "I loved Emily."
The doctor laughed.
"I never said you poisoned her."
He slowly lowered the pistol.
"I said the person who ordered her death was standing beside her at the altar."
Ryan's voice shook.
"You're lying."
The doctor smiled.
"Am I?"
Just then, the lead FBI agent stepped forward.
"Drop the weapon. Now."
The doctor calmly placed the pistol on the floor and raised his hands.
"I've been waiting for this day."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief.
"You've been trying to kill her!" Olivia shouted.
The doctor looked directly into her eyes.
"No."
"I've been trying to stop someone far more powerful."
Silence filled the room.
The FBI agents quickly handcuffed him.
Before they led him away, he turned to Emily one last time.
"Your father warned me this day would come."
Emily frowned.
"My father died when I was five."
The doctor slowly shook his head.
"No..."
"The man who raised you died."
"Your real father didn't."
Ryan looked as though the ground had disappeared beneath his feet.
"What are you saying?"
The doctor nodded toward the old photograph lying on the floor.
"Twenty-six years ago, three babies were born."
"One belonged to an ordinary family."
"One belonged to a wealthy businessman."
"And one..."
"...was the daughter of Victor Ashford."
The room fell silent.
Even the FBI agents exchanged uneasy glances.
Everyone knew the name.
Victor Ashford had been one of the richest industrialists in the country before disappearing without a trace twenty years earlier.
His fortune had never been claimed.
The doctor continued.
"When Victor discovered someone inside his own family wanted his newborn daughter dead, he secretly arranged for her identity to be changed."
Emily covered her mouth.
"I..."
"I'm his daughter?"
The doctor nodded.
"Everything that happened at your wedding..."
"...wasn't about revenge."
"It was about inheritance."
Just then, an FBI agent's radio crackled.
"Sir..."
"We've identified the poison used on the bride."
The agent looked up in disbelief.
"It wasn't meant to kill her."
"It was designed to slow her heartbeat until she appeared clinically dead."
Olivia's heart raced.
"Then whoever poisoned Emily expected her to wake up..."
The agent finished the sentence.
"...after she had already been buried."
A chilling silence swept through the room.
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Someone hadn't wanted a murder investigation.
They had wanted Emily to disappear forever.
