“Why aren’t you going after him?”

Adrian looked down at Emma.

For several seconds, he said nothing.

Then he answered quietly.

“Because if I go after Cole right now, he’ll think this is about his brother being angry.”

He adjusted his coat around her shoulders.

“But if I stay here, I can make sure this is about what he did to you.”

Emma stared at him.

She had expected anger. Perhaps a confrontation. Maybe even a promise that Adrian would force his younger brother to apologize.

She hadn’t expected that answer.

“I don’t need you to fix this.”

“I know.”

“I don’t need your family’s money.”

“I know that too.”

“And I certainly don’t need you to tell me that everything will be okay.”

Adrian crouched in front of her, bringing himself to eye level.

“Emma, I’m not going to tell you that everything will be okay. What happened today is unforgivable. But you don’t have to sit out here in the cold pretending you’re fine.”

That was when she started crying.

Not the pretty kind of crying that happened in movies.

Her shoulders shook. Her breath caught. She covered her face with both hands, trying desperately to stop herself.

Adrian didn’t touch her.

He simply stayed.

After several minutes, he opened the pᴀssenger door.

“Come with me.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere you can breathe.”

She hesitated.

“Cole will be looking for me.”

“Let him.”

Something in Adrian’s voice made her look at him.

There was no uncertainty in it.

He wasn’t asking his brother’s permission.

And for the first time that evening, Emma felt that somebody was willing to put her first.

The car stopped outside a quiet townhouse overlooking Port Mercy Harbor.

It wasn’t the enormous Marston mansion where Emma had attended Christmas dinners and charity events.

This place was smaller, almost deliberately private.

Adrian led her inside, asked the housekeeper to prepare tea, and gave her a clean blanket.

Then he placed his phone on the kitchen counter.

It rang almost immediately.

COLE MARSTON.

Adrian declined the call.

It rang again.

He declined it a second time.

On the third attempt, Adrian answered.

“What?”

His brother’s voice exploded through the speaker.

“Where the hell is Emma?”

“Somewhere safe.”

“Put her on the phone.”

“No.”

“Adrian, this is between me and my fiancée.”

Adrian’s expression hardened.

“She stopped being your fiancée when you decided to make her sister your mistress.”

“Don’t start lecturing me.”

“Then stop giving me reasons.”

There was a pause.

Then Cole lowered his voice.

“Listen. Tessa and I made a mistake. Emma is emotional. She’ll calm down. I need you to bring her back.”

Adrian glanced toward the living room.

Emma was sitting on the sofa, holding a cup of tea she hadn’t touched.

“You still don’t understand, do you?”

“Understand what?”

“You think the problem is that Emma found out.”

Another silence.

“The problem is that you did it.”

Adrian ended the call.

Twenty minutes later, Emma’s phone began vibrating.

Her mother.

Then her aunt.

Then Tessa.

Finally, a message from Cole appeared.

Emma, please don’t destroy three years over one mistake. We need to talk before Saturday.

She read it twice.

One mistake.

Five months.

Hundreds of lies.

An entire wedding planned around a relationship that apparently existed only in her imagination.

She put the phone facedown.

“Does your family know?” she asked.

Adrian was standing near the window.

“About Cole and Tessa?”

She nodded.

“Not officially.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ve suspected something was wrong for weeks.”

Emma looked up.

“Why?”

Adrian hesitated.

“Because Cole started behaving differently. He was withdrawing money from one of the family accounts, canceling meetings, and using company vehicles for personal trips. I asked him about it.”

“And?”

“He told me he was handling a private investment.”

Emma felt her stomach тιԍнтen.

“Was he?”

“No.”

Adrian walked over to the dining table and opened a leather folder.

Inside were several printed documents.

He didn’t immediately hand them to her.

“There’s something else you should know.”

Emma’s eyes moved to the papers.

“What?”

“Your sister wasn’t the only person involved in this.”

Her fingers тιԍнтened around the cup.

“What are you saying?”

Adrian slid one document across the table.

It was a bank transfer confirmation.

A substantial amount of money had been transferred from a Marston company account to an event-management business.

Emma recognized the company name.

It belonged to Tessa.

Her sister had started a small luxury event-planning business the previous year. Emma had even recommended her to several friends.

“Why is your company paying her?”

“That is what I have been trying to establish.”

Emma scanned the document.

The transfer was marked as a consulting payment.

But the date was strange.

It had been made before Tessa’s company had officially registered.

“Cole authorized this?”

Adrian nodded.

“How much?”

“Not just this transfer.”

He opened another page.

Emma stared at the numbers.

Then another.

And another.

The amounts were larger than she could comprehend.

“Why would he give her this much money?”

Adrian’s expression darkened.

“That’s the question.”

Emma slowly lowered the papers.

For a moment, she couldn’t speak.

Then she whispered something that made Adrian look directly at her.

“Did he use my name?”

Adrian didn’t answer immediately.

That was answer enough.

At 10:46 p.m., the doorbell rang.

Emma flinched.

Adrian checked the security monitor.

His expression changed.

“It’s Cole.”

Emma stood.

“Don’t let him in.”

“I won’t.”

But before Adrian could move, Cole’s voice came through the exterior intercom.

“ADRIAN! OPEN THE DOOR!”

A second voice followed.

Tessa.

“Emma! Please! We need to talk!”

Emma closed her eyes.

Even now, her sister was making herself sound like the victim.

Adrian pressed the intercom ʙuттon.

“You have thirty seconds to explain why you’re here.”

Cole answered immediately.

“Dad’s lawyer called. He says you’re freezing my access to the company accounts.”

Adrian’s face became unreadable.

“Your access has been suspended pending an audit.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I just did.”

“You’re doing this because of Emma?”

“No, Cole. I’m doing this because company funds are missing.”

A pause.

Then Cole said something that made Emma’s blood run cold.

“Fine. You want the truth? Ask your precious Emma what she signed three months ago.”

Adrian slowly turned toward her.

Emma felt the room tilt.

“What is he talking about?”

Cole continued shouting through the intercom.

“She signed the authorization. She knew about the investment. Don’t pretend she’s innocent!”

Emma shook her head.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

Adrian didn’t take his eyes off her.

“Emma, did you sign any financial documents for Cole?”

She thought carefully.

Three months earlier, Cole had brought a stack of papers to her apartment.

He’d said they were routine documents connected to the wedding venue and a property investment.

She had been exhausted after work.

He had told her where to sign.

She remembered asking whether she needed to read everything.

He had kissed her forehead and laughed.

Trust me, sweetheart. We’re going to be family.

Emma’s face went pale.

“I signed something.”

Adrian went completely still.

“How many pages?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe six or seven.”

“What did he tell you they were?”

“Wedding-related paperwork. And something about a property.”

Adrian closed his eyes briefly.

Outside, Cole laughed.

It was a cold, triumphant sound.

“Now you understand, don’t you? Emma isn’t just my fiancée. She’s involved.”

Adrian stepped closer to the intercom.

“Cole, listen carefully.”

His voice dropped.

“If you’ve put her signature on anything she didn’t understand, you have a much bigger problem than a canceled wedding.”

At 11:18 p.m., Adrian made a phone call.

Not to the family lawyer.

Not to Cole’s personal attorney.

He called an independent forensic accountant who had investigated financial irregularities in the Marston companies before.

Then he called the attorney who handled Emma’s personal legal interests.

He made one instruction absolutely clear:

“No one contacts Emma about signing anything. No one pressures her to withdraw a statement. And no one uses her name to protect my brother.”

When he finished, Emma was standing beside the fireplace.

“Adrian?”

He turned.

“Did Cole steal money?”

“I don’t know the full amount yet.”

“Did Tessa know?”

“I don’t know.”

Emma swallowed.

“Was he going to marry me anyway?”

Adrian looked at her for a long moment.

“I think he intended to.”

The answer hurt more than she expected.

“Why?”

“Because marrying you would have made everything easier.”

She stared at him.

Adrian continued carefully.

“Your name appears on documents connected to a property transaction. I suspect Cole intended to use the marriage to strengthen his position in a financial arrangement. But I won’t make accusations until we have evidence.”

Emma felt sick.

The betrayal suddenly seemed much larger than an affair.

Her sister hadn’t simply taken the man she loved.

And Cole might have been preparing to take something else.

Her future.

Her financial security.

Perhaps even her reputation.

She sank into the sofa.

“I was going to wear that dress on Saturday.”

Adrian’s expression softened.

“I know.”

“I spent months choosing it.”

“I know.”

“My mother cried when she saw me in it.”

For the first time that evening, Adrian looked almost helpless.

Then he said something she would never forget.

“Then don’t let them take that memory from you. You can decide what happens to the dress later. Tonight, you only need to survive tonight.”

At 7:32 the following morning, Emma woke to twenty-three missed calls.

Thirty-seven messages.

And one email from the wedding venue.

SUBJECT: URGENT — REQUEST TO CONFIRM CANCELLATION

She opened it.

Someone had contacted the Harbor Crown H๏τel requesting that the wedding be canceled.

But the request hadn’t come from Emma.

It had come from Cole.

Attached was a signed authorization bearing her name.

Emma stared at the signature.

It looked like hers.

Almost exactly.

Except for one detail.

The signature was dated three days earlier.

On the day she had been at work, nowhere near the H๏τel.

She immediately showed Adrian.

He studied the document.

“Don’t reply to this email.”

“Someone forged my signature?”

“Possibly. We’ll have it examined.”

Then his phone rang.

He answered.

Listened.

And slowly, his expression changed.

“What do you mean the original agreement is missing?”

A pause.

“Who had access to the safe?”

Another pause.

“Don’t let anyone leave until the investigators arrive.”

He ended the call.

Emma stood.

“What happened?”

Adrian looked at her.

“The original property agreement has disappeared from the company’s legal office.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

He placed a second document on the table.

This one carried Emma’s full legal name.

Below it was a clause she had never seen before.

Her name had been listed as a personal guarantor for a multimillion-dollar loan.

Emma’s knees weakened.

“I never agreed to this.”

“I believe you.”

“Adrian, I never agreed to this!”

“I know.”

He moved the document closer.

Then pointed to the final page.

There were two signatures.

Cole Marston.

And Tessa Bennett.

Emma’s breath stopped.

Her sister hadn’t merely known about the affair.

She had signed the same agreement.

But the final line was what made Emma’s hands begin to shake.

Beneficial ownership transfer upon completion of marriage: Emma Bennett.

She looked up slowly.

“Why would they put my name on this?”

Adrian’s phone vibrated again.

A message from the family attorney appeared.

He read it once.

Then again.

For the first time since Emma had met him, Adrian Marston looked genuinely shocked.

“What?” she whispered.

He turned the screen toward her.

The message contained a pH๏τograph of a second agreement.

It showed that Cole and Tessa had been negotiating a transfer of ownership for months.

But there was a handwritten note at the bottom.

Once Emma marries Cole, the remaining objections disappear. Keep Adrian out until the signatures are complete.

Emma read it twice.

Then she looked at Adrian.

Her voice was barely audible.

“They weren’t just planning to betray me.”

Adrian slowly put his phone down.

“No.”

He looked toward the window, where the harbor was beginning to fill with morning light.

“They were planning to use you to take control of something they couldn’t get without you.”

And then another message arrived.

This time, from an unknown number.

Emma, if you want to know why your sister really chose Cole, ask your mother what happened twenty-seven years ago. She has been lying to you both.

Emma went completely still.

Twenty-seven years ago.

The year Tessa was born.

Adrian read the message over her shoulder.

Neither spoke.

Because suddenly, the wedding wasn’t the only secret in the Bennett family.

And the woman who might know the truth was the same woman Emma had called crying just hours earlier.

TO BE CONTINUED — PART 3: THE SECRET THEIR MOTHER BURIED FOR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS.