Then the door burst open with drunken groomsmen calling for him. Daniel snapped the folder shut.
“Hide these,” his mother said.
“In the safe?”
“No. In her suitcase. If anything goes wrong, we say she planned it.”
They were getting careless now, drunk on victory. Arrogance makes people loud. Greed makes them sloppy.
When they left, I waited thirty seconds.
Then I sat up.
My hands were shaking, but my mind was ice.
I pulled the vial from my bouquet, sealed it, and slipped it into the emergency pouch sewn beneath my dress. Then I retrieved my phone.
A message from my lawyer glowed on the screen.
We got everything. Police on standby. Board notified. Your call.
I looked at the forged signatures. The papers hidden in my suitcase. The wedding ring on my finger.
Daniel thought he had married a fortune.
He had married a trap.
I typed back with one thumb.