Chapter 6 - Chloe Explains Why She Stayed Smiling
Margaret asked the hardest question carefully.
“Did Maxwell threaten to physically hurt you?”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
That mattered.
The truth was serious enough without inventing violence.
Maxwell used pressure differently.
He told Chloe that walking away from the wedding would trigger immediate
litigation against Bennett Medical.
He claimed thousands of employees could lose jobs if investors panicked.
Cecelia repeatedly told Chloe that a good wife protected both families
from scandal.
Richard warned that Daniel could face fraud allegations based on the
fabricated emails.
Then Dr. Andrew Vale told Chloe she was showing signs of an acute stress
episode and should avoid “impulsive decisions.”
He prescribed a sedative.
Chloe took one dose the night before.
She hated how it made her feel.
She refused it on the wedding morning.
Cecelia did not force her to take it.
But she kept suggesting Chloe was too emotionally unstable to manage the
situation.
By the ceremony, Chloe no longer trusted her own judgment.
“So you smiled,” Margaret said.
Chloe nodded.
“I thought if I could get the note to you, you could tell me whether I
was crazy.”
Margaret took her hands.
“You never needed my permission to leave.”
Chloe cried harder.
Daniel added:
“And needing help doesn’t make you crazy.”
Chloe looked at him.
Then she said something Margaret did not expect.
“I still love Maxwell.”
No one mocked her.
Love did not prove the marriage was safe.
It also did not vanish because Maxwell had done something wrong.
Chloe removed her wedding ring and placed it on the table.
“I don’t know what happens to us.”
Margaret answered:
“You don’t have to know tonight.”
May you like
For the first time all day, nobody demanded that Chloe make a permanent
decision immediately.
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