Chapter 2 - The Altar of Lies
I stopped dialing the emergency number and stared at the woman I was supposed to marry.
The hallway was perfectly quiet, insulated from the four hundred guests waiting outside.
“What did you just say?” I asked softly.
Claire’s smile was painfully polite, exactly like the one she used at charity galas.
“I said, accidents are such tragic things.”
She reached down, picked up the folder containing the estate documents, and tapped it against her manicured fingernails.
“Your father was a very stubborn man who refused to sell his company.”
“My father had a heart attack at the wheel,” I said, though my chest suddenly felt tight.
“That is what the coroner was paid to write,” Claire whispered.
My mother groaned slightly from the floor, trying to shift her weight.
I had to get her out of this building immediately.
“Keep the folder,” I told Claire.
“Oh, I intend to,” she replied.
I knelt down and gently scooped my mother into my arms.
She was light, fragile from years of pain, and she gripped my tuxedo lapels tightly.
“Ethan, the guests are waiting,” my mother whispered, still trying to protect me.
“Let them wait,” I said.
I carried her past Claire without another glance.
We moved down the long corridor, heading toward the rear exit of the country club.
My mind was racing through the last four years of my life.
Claire’s family had swooped in right after the crash.
Her father, Arthur Sterling, had offered us loans, emotional support, and legal guidance.
They had slowly surrounded me, isolating me from my father’s old friends and business partners.
I pushed open the heavy glass doors and walked out into the warm afternoon sun.
A valet immediately rushed over, seeing the blood draining from my mother’s face.
“Bring my car,” I barked.
As the valet sprinted away, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I managed to pull it out while holding my mother against my chest.
The caller ID showed it was Marcus, my father’s old head of security, a man I hadn't spoken to in three years.
I answered and put it on speaker.
“Ethan, you need to get out of the country club right now,” Marcus said, his voice breathless.
“I'm already outside,” I replied.
“Good, don't go to the hospital.”
“My mother is hurt, Marcus.”
“If you take her to a hospital, Arthur Sterling’s people will declare her mentally and physically incompetent.”
May you like
The valet pulled my car up to the curb.
“They just filed a conservatorship application in federal court ten minutes ago, Ethan.”
