Chapter 2: The Empty Honeymoon Fund
Back at the cathedral, the two hundred elite guests were descending into absolute chaos. Adrian paced furiously in the vestibule, dialing my number over and over again, only to be met with a dead line. His mother, Celeste, was frantically trying to perform damage control with the gossiping socialites.
"She's just having a hysterical episode," Celeste laughed nervously to a group of Wall Street wives. "You know how these charity cases are; they simply cannot handle the pressure of our world." But the whispers were already spreading like wildfire through the pews.
Adrian finally cornered his best man, the idiot who had slipped the fraudulent contract under my nose. "Did she sign the transfer?" Adrian hissed, grabbing the man by his lapels. "Tell me she signed the damn Halcyon shares over before she threw her little tantrum!"
"She didn't sign anything, Adrian," the best man stammered, pulling the blank document from his tuxedo jacket. "And the priest is refusing to file the marriage certificate. Legally, you aren't even married."
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Adrian’s face drained of all color as the reality of his failure began to set in. He had spent the last year meticulously plotting to steal my twelve percent stake to save his family's collapsing hedge fund. Without my shares, the Vale family was completely bankrupt, and the SEC was already sniffing around their fraudulent ledgers.
Desperate, Adrian pulled out his banking app to check the joint account he had forced me to open for our 'honeymoon fund.' The screen loaded, revealing a staggering balance of absolute zero. I had already drained the millions I secretly deposited, leaving him with a negative overdraft fee.
