Part 6
Emmy looked at Nathan’s watch. She had teased him once about wearing something too fine for a man who claimed a small salary.
Then she looked at Owen, standing behind him.
The transfer from Veylan. Director Dorr’s frightened apology. His mother’s earrings. The whiskey.
Nathan came toward her.
“Emmy.”
She stepped back.
“Don’t.”
Sabrina tried to take his arm. He shook her off without looking at her.
“Please let me explain.”
“How long?” Emmy asked.
He stopped.
“How long were you going to let me believe you?”
“I thought, at the beginning, that you wanted Grandma’s money.”
“So marrying me was a test.”
“Yes.”
She closed the coat carefully. Her hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and she would not let anyone see more than she had to.
“You watched me sell clothes after work. You watched me count grocery money.”
“I never mocked you.”
“You told me an old woman had spent her retirement savings on my debt.”
“I was wrong.”
“We’ve been married six months. You had six months to be wrong and stop.”
“I learned who you were. Then I fell in love with what we had. I became afraid of losing it.”
“So you kept me by lying.”
He had no answer that didn’t make it worse.
“You know what happened to my parents,” she said. “You know what trusting a liar cost them.”
“I know.”
“And every time I asked a question, you gave me another story.”
Nathan reached toward her, then let his hand fall.
“I’ll make this right.”
“Don’t start arranging my life around me. Don’t buy a solution I haven’t asked for.”
“I want you safe.”
“I want to be free to decide.”
Her voice steadied.
“I want a divorce.”
Sabrina moved closer the moment Emmy walked away.
“You don’t need her.”
Nathan turned on her.
“Even without Emmy, I would never choose you.”
He told Owen to preserve the party recordings as evidence and prevent their circulation. Sabrina, Vanessa, and the manager who had sent Emmy there would be investigated.
Then he asked for discreet security near Emmy.
“Not beside her. Don’t approach her unless there’s danger. She asked me for space.”
Emmy moved into the small guest room beside Lorraine’s office at the children’s home.
She went to work. She answered ordinary questions. She removed her wedding ring at night, then put it back in the morning because she couldn’t yet decide what either choice meant.
Vanessa and Sabrina met in secret.
“I’ve lost my job and my family’s support,” Vanessa said.
“He humiliated me in front of everyone,” Sabrina replied.
They stopped discussing separate grievances and began making one plan.
A message reached Emmy claiming that an important client wanted to review her portfolio. She took the appointment details and left the studio.
Near the address, she checked the client system on her phone. Nothing matched.
She had just called the office to ask when someone grabbed her from behind.
Her phone hit the pavement.
The room smelled of damp plaster and old packing paper.
Emmy pulled against the restraint at her wrists. Vanessa stood in front of her, watching.
“What do you want?”
“Sabrina’s marrying Nathan tomorrow. You’re going to see who belongs beside him.”
“He won’t marry her.”
Vanessa bent closer.
“He will if he wants you alive.”
Later, Emmy heard them arguing outside about who would stay. Sabrina left. Vanessa remained with an accomplice, complaining that she needed a break.
Emmy waited until the hallway went quiet before trying to reach the narrow window behind her chair.
Nathan’s security team found the broken phone after losing sight of Emmy near the appointment address. He handed everything they knew to the police and made his staff available for the search.
Then Sabrina called.
“Looking for your wife?”
“Where is she?”
“Safe, if you cooperate.”
“What do you want?”
“A public wedding tomorrow. An announcement. Everyone will know I’m your wife.”
Nathan gripped the edge of the desk until his fingers hurt.
“If she’s hurt—”
“Agree.”
He looked at Owen, then at the officer listening beside him.
“I’ll attend.”
When the call ended, he gave the police access to every message and recording. Sabrina would need to contact Vanessa. The public preparations could keep her occupied long enough for them to locate Emmy.
By morning, rumors of Nathan Vale’s wedding were everywhere.
Sabrina arrived dressed for the occasion. Owen met her with a stack of papers.
“Legal review first.”
“How long does that take?”
“Until it’s complete.”
She demanded to see Nathan. Owen turned another page and asked her to verify a detail.
Emmy managed to loosen one hand enough to reach her ear.
The repaired jade earring hurt as she pulled it free. She wrapped it in a strip torn from her sleeve and pushed the little bundle through a gap beneath the window.
It fell onto the concrete outside the service entrance.
Vanessa came back as Emmy drew her hand away.
“What are you doing?”
Emmy said nothing.
Vanessa grabbed the torn cuff.
“You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”
A shout came from the hallway.
Then another, sharper one.
The door opened, and Nathan was there with police behind him.
He dropped beside Emmy and reached for the restraint.
She caught his wrist with her freed hand.
“I thought I wasn’t getting out.”
“I would have kept looking.” His voice broke on the last word. “Anywhere, Emmy.”
Outside, an officer held the torn fabric and earring in an evidence bag. They had narrowed the search to several properties connected to the false address; the bundle had marked the right building.
Vanessa and the accomplice were taken into custody. An officer stopped Vanessa when she tried to pull away.
At the wedding venue, police entered while Sabrina was demanding that Owen bring Nathan downstairs.
She stared at the handcuffs.
“There’s supposed to be a ceremony.”
“You’re coming with us,” the officer said. “Kidnapping, blackmail, and conspiracy.”
Her guests watched as she was led past the unopened flowers…
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