I pushed the door open and stepped into the bridal suite, locking the heavy oak wood behind me.
Mark was sitting on the edge of the leather sofa, giving Toby a soda can while the boy wiped his face with a paper napkin.
Mark: Alright man, you're freaking me out. What's on that USB?
David: Power up your machine. Let's see what my bride didn't want me to find.
Mark set the laptop on the glass coffee table and flipped open the screen. The silver glow illuminated the dark suite.
I inserted the drive into the side port. The drive folder popped up instantly on the screen: four folders, neatly labeled with dates and legal numbers.
David: Open the folder named 'Miller Estate Settlement'.
Mark clicked the mouse, and my stomach plummeted as dozens of scanned PDFs filled the screen.
Mark: Wait... isn't that your late father's company letterhead?
David: Yes. It is.
Mark: Why does Vanessa have your family's private legal records?
I leaned over his shoulder, clicking on an audio file labeled with last week's date. The speakers crackled to life with a familiar male voice.
Male Voice: Once the prenup is signed without the clause on the manufacturing plants, we initiate the foreclosure proceeding on the secondary warehouse.
Then Vanessa's clear, cold voice filled the room.
Vanessa: He won't notice. David trusts me completely. He thinks I'm just helping his sister Clara sort through their father's debts. By the time he realizes the mortgage on Clara's home was leveraged, the whole inheritance will be transferred into the offshore shell company.
Mark gasped, his jaw dropping open as he looked up at me.
Mark: David... that's Richard Vance. That's your father's old business rival!
David: She's working with Vance. The man who tried to bankrupt my dad five years ago.
Toby: See, Uncle David? I told you! She said she was going to take my mommy's house away!
I knelt down beside Toby, pulling him into a tight embrace as my whole body shook with rage.
David: You did good, Toby. You saved our entire family, buddy.
Outside the door, the loud banging started. Vanessa was pounding on the heavy wood with her fists.
Vanessa: David! Open this door right now! People are asking where you are!
Mark: What are you going to do? Should I call security?
David: Not yet. First, I want a copy of every single document on this drive sent to my divorce lawyer and the county district attorney.
Mark: Done. Uploading them to a secure cloud server right now.
I took a deep breath, smoothing down my jacket in the mirror. The man looking back at me was no longer a nervous groom.
David: Mark, take Toby through the back service entrance to his mother. Make sure Clara stays calm.
Mark: And what about you? What are you going to say to two hundred guests out there?
David: I'm going to give them the show Vanessa paid for.
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