CHAPTER 2 - The Secret They Were Trying to Hide
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Not Ethan.
Not my mother.
Not me.
The three of us stood beneath that old oak tree while my wedding ceremony continued only a few yards away.
The irony almost made me laugh.
Inside the church, everyone was waiting for me to become a wife.
Outside...
I was discovering that my entire life might have been built on a lie.
I looked at Ethan.
Then at my mother.
"Explain."
My voice was quieter than I expected.
But somehow...
That made it more serious.
Ethan took a step toward me.
"Sarah..."
"Don't."
I raised my hand.
"Don't say my name like everything is normal."
His face tightened.
"I know how this looks."
I laughed once.
Bitterly.
"Do you?"
"You disappeared from our wedding ceremony."
"I followed you."
"And I found you kissing another woman."
I looked at my mother.
"While she was hiding her face from me."
My mother lowered her eyes.
Tears were already forming.
"Sarah..."
"No."
I shook my head.
"I spent my entire life trusting you."
"You were the first person I called when I got engaged."
"You helped me choose this dress."
"You cried when I told you Ethan proposed."
My voice broke.
"And now I find you here?"
My mother stepped closer.
"Because I was trying to protect you."
Those words made me stop.
"Protect me from what?"
Neither of them answered.
That silence hurt more than anything.
I turned toward Ethan.
"How long?"
He looked confused.
"What?"
"How long have you two been meeting behind my back?"
His face changed.
"Sarah, no."
"Answer me."
"Have you been lying to me for months?"
"No."
His answer came immediately.
Too quickly.
"I have never lied about loving you."
"Then tell me the truth."
Ethan looked at my mother.
She nodded slowly.
Like they had rehearsed this moment.
That made my stomach turn.
Finally, Ethan spoke.
"Your mother contacted me six months ago."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because she found something."
"What?"
He reached into his jacket pocket.
He pulled out a small envelope.
Old.
Worn.
My name was written across the front.
My heart stopped.
"Where did you get that?"
My mother answered softly.
"From your father."
The air disappeared from my lungs.
"My father?"
I almost laughed.
"My father died twelve years ago."
"I know."
She looked down.
"But before he died, he left something behind."
I took the envelope from Ethan.
My hands were shaking.
Inside was a letter.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
My father's.
The first line made my blood run cold.
Sarah, if you are reading this, it means I failed to protect you myself.
I stopped breathing.
I continued.
There are things about my past that your mother never told you. Things I kept hidden because I believed silence would keep you safe.
I looked up.
"What is this?"
My mother sat down on the old stone bench nearby.
She looked twenty years older in that moment.
"Your father wasn't the man you thought he was."
My eyebrows pulled together.
"What does that mean?"
"He spent the last years of his life investigating someone."
"Who?"
She looked at Ethan.
Then back at me.
"The Whitmore family."
I frowned.
I didn't understand.
"The family Ethan works for?"
Ethan nodded.
"Yes."
My mother's voice became quieter.
"Your father discovered they were involved in something dangerous."
"What kind of something?"
She hesitated.
"Financial crimes."
"Blackmail."
"Fraud."
"And people disappearing when they got too close."
A cold feeling moved through my body.
I looked at Ethan.
"You knew?"
He looked away.
That was my answer.
My heart broke again.
"You knew about my father's investigation?"
"Yes."
"And you still proposed to me?"
His eyes filled with pain.
"Because I loved you."
"Because I promised your father before he died that I would protect you."
The world seemed to tilt.
"Wait..."
"What did you just say?"
Ethan swallowed.
"Your father knew me."
"He knew my family."
"He knew what they were capable of."
My mother's voice cracked.
"The day before he died..."
"He called Ethan."
I stared.
"Why?"
"Because your father believed Ethan was the only person inside that family who could be trusted."
I looked at Ethan.
The man I thought had betrayed me.
The man standing in front of me on our wedding day.
Suddenly...
Everything felt different.
But I wasn't ready to forgive.
Not yet.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Ethan looked down.
"Because the people your father investigated are still powerful."
"Because if they knew I was close to you..."
"They would know I had found the evidence."
My heart pounded.
"What evidence?"
Before Ethan could answer...
A phone rang.
My mother's phone.
She looked at the screen.
And all the color disappeared from her face.
"What is it?"
She didn't respond.
She simply handed me the phone.
A message appeared.
From an unknown number.
Only one sentence:
WE KNOW SHE KNOWS.
Then another message arrived.
THE WEDDING MUST CONTINUE. OR SHE DIES.
I looked up.
My hands went cold.
"What does this mean?"
Ethan stepped closer.
His face had changed completely.
The fear I saw earlier was back.
But this time...
It wasn't for himself.
It was for me.
"Sarah..."
"We need to leave."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
He looked toward the church.
Toward the guests.
Toward the wedding we had just abandoned.
Then he whispered the words that changed everything:
May you like
"Because the person who sent that message..."
"...is sitting inside our wedding right now."
