Chapter 4 - The Bride Was Chosen
Audrey had met Robert two years before she met Nathan.
That revelation changed everything.
They first crossed paths at a charity wine auction in Napa. Audrey worked in event strategy for a luxury hospitality firm. Robert noticed her because she knew how to move through wealthy rooms without looking impressed.
They began an affair within three months.
At least, that was Audrey’s version.
Robert denied it immediately.
“She’s lying to save herself.”
Audrey looked at him.
“You told me Nathan was lonely.”
Robert’s jaw tightened.
“You said he trusted women who seemed independent. You told me what restaurants he liked. What books he read. Where he ran in the mornings.”
Nathan’s face became unreadable.
Margaret felt sick.
Audrey continued.
“I didn’t understand the full plan at first.”
Nathan spoke quietly.
“But you understood enough to date me while sleeping with him.”
Audrey started to cry again.
“Yes.”
“Don’t cry for me.”
The words were not cruel.
That made them worse.
Audrey wiped her face.
Robert moved toward the door.
One of the security officers blocked him.
“This is my property,” Robert snapped.
Margaret answered, “No. It isn’t.”
The estate belonged to a hospitality company. The vineyard belonged partly to Margaret. Robert had spent decades speaking as though anything near him belonged to him.
Now that illusion was breaking.
Claire asked Audrey to continue.
Robert had told her that Nathan would eventually control the vineyard because Margaret trusted him more than her husband.
Robert hated that.
He had built the business, he claimed.
He had expanded distribution.
He had negotiated national contracts.
Yet because the land came from Margaret’s family, he would always be treated like an outsider.
So he created another route to control.
Audrey.
“If Nathan married you,” Claire said, “Robert believed he could influence Nathan through you.”
Audrey nodded.
“And if Nathan gave you voting proxy authority?”
“Robert would combine it with his shares.”
Twenty-eight percent from Robert.
Twenty-two from Nathan.
Fifty percent.
Enough, with one friendly minority investor, to control nearly every major decision.
Margaret whispered, “And my shares?”
Audrey looked ashamed.
“The restructuring would have moved some of your voting rights into the new holding company.”
“Using my forged signature.”
“Yes.”
Margaret sat down.
For the first time, the plan appeared whole.
Robert had not merely cheated on her.
He had spent years preparing to take control of property inherited from her parents.
Nathan asked, “Why the transfers to Sable Coast?”
Audrey looked at Robert again.
This time he said nothing.
“Some of it paid me,” she said.
“How much?”
“Four hundred thousand.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“For what?”
“To keep going.”
Margaret stared at her.
“You were paid to marry my son?”
Audrey whispered, “Partly.”
Nathan walked toward the window.
He looked across the vineyard.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low.
“Was any of it real?”
Audrey did not answer immediately.
“That’s not fair.”
Nathan turned.
“No. Fair would have been finding out before I asked you to marry me. Fair would have been sleeping last night instead of wondering whether every time you said you loved me, you were thinking about the next payment.”
Audrey covered her face.
“I did love you.”
Robert laughed bitterly.
Nathan looked at him.
“What’s funny?”
Robert shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“No. Tell me.”
Robert’s composure finally cracked.
“You always wanted life to be clean, Nathan. Good people. Bad people. Honest love. Honest business. That’s not how anything works.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Maybe not in your life.”
Robert’s face hardened.
“I built everything you have.”
Margaret stood.
“No.”
Robert turned.
She looked directly at him.
“My parents planted the first vines. I inherited the land. I signed the first expansion loan because the bank wouldn’t lend to you alone. You worked hard, Robert. I will never deny that. But somewhere along the way you decided working hard meant everything became yours.”
Robert’s voice dropped.
“You would have lost this place without me.”
“Maybe.”
Margaret held his gaze.
“But I would rather have lost the vineyard than become the woman you thought you could steal it from.”
Robert looked away first.
That mattered to her.
Later, after the guests had left, Nathan sat alone in the empty reception room.
Audrey’s bouquet remained on a chair.
Margaret found him there.
He had removed his jacket and loosened his tie.
She sat beside him.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Then Margaret said, “You loved her.”
Nathan nodded.
“I think I loved who she was when she was with me.”
“Maybe that person existed.”
“Does it matter?”
Margaret thought about Robert.
The young man at the harvest festival.
The husband who held Nathan the night he was born.
The father who coached Little League.
The man kissing Audrey upstairs.
“I don’t know,” she said.
Nathan looked at her.
Margaret took his hand.
“But we are going to find out exactly what happened. And then we are going to decide what part of our lives belongs to us.”
May you like
Nathan gave a tired smile.
Behind them, workers began taking down white flowers from a wedding that had never truly been meant to happen.
