Vanessa kicked frantically against the slick stone, her designer shoes flying off her feet and bouncing across the aisle.
Vanessa: Let go of my arm! You’re bruising me, Julian! Somebody help me!
Not a single one of the five hundred guests stood up to help her.
Her own maid of honor backed up against the flower display, holding her phone to record every single second.
Richard Vance: Julian! Unhand my daughter right now! You have no legal right to touch her!
Vanessa’s father rushed from the front row, his face glowing purple with fury as he tried to grab Julian's shoulder.
Julian: Back away from me, Richard, before I take your shipping company apart piece by piece.
Richard: You are assaulting a woman in the house of God over a filthy beggar's delusion!
Julian: This boy has my blood! He has Claire’s eyes, he has my grandfather's locket, and he has Henderson's name!
Richard: Henderson worked for your firm, not ours!
Leo: That's a lie! Mr. Henderson had papers with the Vance family logo on them!
Leo stepped forward, his small hands digging deep into his oversized canvas coat pocket.
He pulled out three folded, water-stained sheets of yellow paper and held them out toward the crowd.
Leo: He dropped these when he got drunk two nights ago! He said the bride was paying off his ranch mortgage!
Julian halted his drag of Vanessa, letting her arm drop onto the floor while he snatched the papers from his son.
His eyes scanned the lines of printed bank transfers, wire receipts, and signature authorizations.
Julian: A quarterly wire of seventy-five thousand dollars from Vance Logistics private trust to Thomas Henderson.
Vanessa: That was a legitimate consulting fee! Henderson did background checks for our executive board!
Julian: Memo line: Child maintenance and silence agreement, Waco facility.
The cathedral went dead silent; you could hear the soft whir of the air conditioning vents overhead.
Vanessa: Julian... please... you have to understand the pressure I was under!
Julian: You knew he was alive. You let me cry at an empty grave in Highland Park for sixty months!
Vanessa: You were obsessed with Claire! You were never going to look at me as long as her memory lived in that house!
Julian: So you kidnapped my seven-year-old child?!
Vanessa: I didn't hurt him! I made sure he had food! I made sure Henderson bought him clothes and medicine!
Leo: He gave me cold bread and locked me in the dark cellar whenever I asked about my dad!
Julian: You locked an heir to the Sterling estate in a cellar like an animal!
Vanessa: If you kept him, the whole estate was going into Claire’s family trust! You were going to be broke after the probate court battle!
Julian: I never cared about the money! I cared about my family!
Julian turned toward his best man, Marcus, who was already holding his phone to his ear with a tight jaw.
Julian: Marcus, tell me you’re on the phone with the chief.
Marcus: Chief of Dallas Police and the FBI field supervisor are on speaker right now, Julian.
Julian: Bring every squad car in North Texas to this chapel immediately.
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