The sanctuary was so quiet you could hear the distant traffic from the city streets outside.
Julian took another tentative step toward Helena, his hands held out as if approaching a wild animal.
Julian: Helena, if you survived... why didn't you come home? Why did you hide for three whole years?
Helena: Home? To the estate where my brakes were cut two days after I refused to sign over Leo's inheritance?
Victoria let out a shrill, hysterical laugh that echoed off the stained-glass windows.
Victoria: Listen to her! She's completely unhinged! She's making up murder plots at our wedding!
Julian: Helena, that crash was ruled an accident by state investigators! There was heavy black ice on the bridge!
Helena: The mechanic who inspected the brake lines right before that trip was paid fifty thousand dollars in cash, Julian.
Julian: Paid by who? I gave you that Mercedes for your birthday!
Helena: Ask the woman standing next to you in that four-thousand-dollar veil.
Victoria stiffened, her jaw snapping shut as several heads in the front row turned sharply toward her.
Victoria: That is an absolute lie! Julian, she's trying to tear us apart! She wants your family's money!
Helena: I didn't need Julian's money, Victoria. I had my own. But you needed his name to stop your father's hedge fund from going into liquidation.
A tall, gray-haired man in the second row stood up abruptly—Victoria's father, Marcus Sterling.
Marcus Sterling: That's enough out of this woman! Julian, take control of this circus or I am pulling our joint venture off the table!
Helena: There is no joint venture, Marcus. Not unless you plan on investing with a man whose entire net worth is tied up in a frozen probate dispute.
Julian's eyes widened, his hands trembling as he reached into his jacket pocket for his phone.
Julian: What dispute? My father's estate was settled eighteen months ago!
Helena: It was settled under the presumption that I was deceased and that Leo's custody transferred entirely to you. But I am very much alive.
Leo looked up at his father, his big brown eyes filled with confusion and hurt.
Leo: Daddy, why did you tell me Mommy went to sleep in the clouds? Why did you make me give away all her paintings?
Julian flinched, looking away from his son's gaze.
Julian: Leo... the doctors told me... the police said there were no survivors...
Helena: The police said they found a burned frame in the river bed. You didn't even wait for a secondary DNA test before you moved Victoria into my master bedroom.
Victoria took two aggressive strides toward Helena, her manicured finger pointing straight between Helena's eyes.
Victoria: You threw your life away! You ran off and abandoned your boy like a coward, and now you want to crash my wedding day?
Helena didn't flinch. She stepped forward, closing the distance until she was inches from Victoria's face.
Helena: I didn't abandon him. I spent eighteen months in an intensive burn rehabilitation clinic in Canada under an assumed name because I knew if you found out I was breathing, you'd finish the job.
Victoria: You have no proof! You have nothing but pathetic fairy tales!
Helena smiled coldly, lifting her left hand so the diamond ring caught the overhead chandelier light with blinding intensity.
Helena: I have more than proof, Victoria. I have the wire transfers.
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