Chapter 8 - THE WEDDING WITHOUT A BRIDE
The Blackwood wedding had been canceled, but the Grand Marlowe Hotel was still full of flowers.
White roses covered the ballroom. Crystal chandeliers burned above empty tables. A six-tier cake stood untouched near the dance floor.
Damien had chosen the abandoned celebration as a meeting place.
Victor entered through the front with Detective Quinn. Marco and the tactical team moved through the kitchens.
Lily waited in a surveillance van, listening through Victor’s microphone.
At the center of the ballroom stood Serena’s father, August Montigue. His tuxedo was wrinkled, and fear had stripped the arrogance from his face.
Damien held a gun at his side.
“You brought police,” Damien said.
Victor kept walking. “You brought a hostage.”
August raised both hands. “Victor, I didn’t know they were hurting the child. Serena told me the trust amendment was for protection.”
Damien laughed. “Everyone suddenly becomes innocent when the doors close.”
He held up a leather folder containing the original trust.
“Sign over your companies to me, and Montigue walks out.”
Victor stopped ten feet away. “You don’t want the companies. You want to stop being second.”
Damien’s face tightened.
Through the microphone, Lily heard another sound: a faint tapping beneath the stage.
Three taps. Pause. Three taps.
She remembered teaching Rosa that rhythm as a signal when Ethan was sleeping.
“Rosa is under the stage,” Lily told Quinn over the radio. “Someone else is there.”
Marco’s team opened a service hatch and pulled Rosa to safety.
But the second person beneath the stage was Serena.
She had escaped custody during a hospital transfer by faking a seizure.
Serena climbed onto the stage holding a small remote.
“Drop your weapons,” she said. “This building has enough fuel in the basement to turn the ballroom into a furnace.”
Damien stared at her. “That wasn’t the plan.”
May you like
Serena smiled.
“You were never the plan.”
