Chapter 5 - The Groom’s Dead Father
Nathan took the torn photograph.
His hands shook.
The man beside Harrison was unmistakable.
Brigadier General Thomas Hayes.
Nathan’s father.
The man whose funeral had been attended by half the officers in the ballroom.
Officially, General Hayes died in a helicopter accident seven years earlier.
Nathan had never questioned it.
“What was my father doing with him?” Nathan asked.
Brooke stepped backward.
“Nathan, please.”
He looked at her.
“You knew about this photograph.”
She shook her head.
But her eyes betrayed her.
Caroline watched her sister carefully.
Brooke had always been a poor liar.
As children, she looked toward the truth whenever she tried to hide it.
Now she looked at Harrison’s inner jacket pocket.
Caroline saw the shape of a second envelope.
“Harrison,” Shaw said, “empty your pockets.”
He refused.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Do it.”
Harrison laughed.
“You think a uniform gives you authority over me?”
Nathan’s face became still.
“No.”
He looked at Caroline.
“Her rank does.”
Caroline did not move.
She did not need to.
Shaw repeated the command.
Harrison finally pulled out his wallet, phone, and a sealed plastic sleeve.
Inside was the other half of the photograph.
Shaw joined the pieces.
The full image showed Harrison handing General Hayes a black folder while Brooke stood in the background.
She could not have been more than nineteen.
Nathan stared at his bride.
“You were there.”
Brooke covered her mouth.
“My father said it was business.”
“What business?”
She looked at Harrison again.
He snapped, “Do not answer.”
Nathan stepped between them.
“She’s my wife.”
Harrison’s expression turned contemptuous.
“She became useful to you five hours ago.”
The cruelty stunned Brooke.
She stared at her father.
He continued.
“You think this marriage was about love?”
Nathan went completely still.
Caroline looked at her sister.
Brooke’s terror was no longer about a ruined wedding.
It was about a plan collapsing.
“What did he promise you?” Caroline asked.
Brooke’s lips trembled.
“He said if I married Nathan, the Hayes family would stop looking into the contracts.”
Nathan’s face drained.
“You married me to protect him?”
“No. I loved you.”
“But you knew why he encouraged it.”
Brooke could not answer.
Shaw opened Harrison’s phone.
A recent message appeared from an unknown number.
Destroy Reed’s journal before the ceremony ends.
Another message followed.
May you like
If Hayes learns the truth, we all fall.
👉 Harrison was not acting alone—and the person ordering him was already inside the ballroom.
