Chapter 3 - The Wedding That Never HappenedAt eleven that morning, Ashborne House still looked prepared for a wedding.
White roses filled the lobby.
Two hundred chairs waited beneath the ballroom chandeliers.
My name and Gavin's appeared together on gold menus.
OLIVIA & GAVIN
The sight made me nauseous.
By noon, guests began arriving.
We had not publicly cancelled yet.
Rebecca Sloan, Hart Meridian’s general counsel, advised silence until regulators received evidence.
Then Gavin made the decision for us.
He released a statement.
Not to me.
To the press.
Due to a private emotional matter, the wedding of Gavin Mercer and Olivia Hart has been postponed. Mr. Mercer remains committed to resolving the misunderstanding privately and respectfully.
Misunderstanding.
I laughed so loudly Ethan came running.
“What?”
I showed him.
His face turned red.
“I really do want to kill him.”
“No.”
“Still?”
“Still.”
I called our communications director.
“Release the truth.”
“How much?”
“All of the wedding truth. None of the financial investigation yet.”
Twenty minutes later:
Olivia Hart has ended her engagement to Gavin Mercer. The wedding will not proceed. Ms. Hart asks that hotel staff and invited guests be treated respectfully during departure.
One sentence.
Enough.
Then I did something neither Gavin nor Charles expected.
I kept the ballroom.
Not the wedding.
The room.
Food had already been prepared.
Flowers already cut.
Staff already working.
I told Daniel:
“Offer the meals to every hotel employee first. Anything left goes to shelters and hospital night staff.”
He smiled.
“What about the champagne?”
“Employees who are off duty.”
Ethan laughed.
“Dad would approve.”
“He'd complain about waste first.”
“Then approve.”
At 1:12, Gavin arrived in the ballroom.
Security stopped him.
He shouted my name.
I let him enter.
Rebecca stayed.
So did Ethan.
Gavin looked around at servers removing place cards.
“You're really doing this.”
“Yes.”
“Three years, Olivia.”
“Yes.”
“You're ending everything without one conversation?”
I looked at him.
“Did you approach me because of Charles?”
His face changed.
“Initially.”
The word hurt more than yes.
“How long before it became real?”
“It was real.”
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“Try.”
He stepped closer.
“The first trip to Boston.”
Seven months after we met.
I absorbed that.
“So the first seven months were a transaction.”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I liked you.”
“But you were there because Charles wanted access to Hart Meridian.”
Gavin cried.
“I didn't expect to love you.”
“What a romantic tragedy.”
“Olivia.”
“And Tessa?”
He looked away.
“How long?”
“On and off.”
“Throughout our relationship?”
Silence.
I already knew.
“Why?”
Gavin whispered:
“Because she knew everything.”
I frowned.
Tessa was not simply an affair.
She was the person who knew the original plan.
When Gavin's feelings toward me became complicated, Tessa remained the one person with whom he didn't need to pretend.
He claimed he loved me.
He claimed sleeping with Tessa was “self-sabotage.”
I almost admired the arrogance required to turn betrayal into personal suffering.
Then he said:
“I was going to cancel the financing scheme.”
I stared.
“When?”
“After the wedding.”
Of course.
Always later.
Later he would become honest.
Later he would stop the fraud.
Later he would confess.
Future courage was apparently Gavin's favorite excuse for present cowardice.
Rebecca interrupted.
“Did you authorize the forged voting transfer?”
Gavin froze.
I watched.
That was answer enough.
He looked at me.
“Charles said it was temporary.”
I laughed.
“You were going to steal my voting rights temporarily?”
“To protect MercerArc until the financing closed.”
“From whom?”
He said nothing.
“From me?”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“You were marrying me while preparing legal documents designed to prevent me from stopping you.”
His eyes filled.
“I'm sorry.”
I believed him.
That was the worst part.
“Get out.”
“Olivia.”
“Security.”
Marcus moved.
Gavin backed away.
At the doors he turned.
“You're going to destroy MercerArc.”
“No.”
I replied:
“You did that before I opened the folder.”
After he left, Rebecca received a call.
Federal regulators had accepted the referral.
The wedding was cancelled.
May you like
Now the investigation was official.
And by sunset, MercerArc's board removed Gavin as CEO.
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