Chương 6
Marcus had no response.
Because it was true.
Lena walked past them.
“We need to go.”
Ava looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because if reporters are here, someone wanted this public.”
The three of them became still.
Ava looked at the folder.
Then at the door.
Then at Marcus.
“Someone knew I was coming.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“And they wanted witnesses.”
“Yes.”
The realization was not dramatic.
It was worse.
It was practical.
Someone had planned this.
Someone had chosen the location, the timing, and the audience.
The wedding had not been interrupted.
It had been used.
Marcus took the folder.
Ava immediately reached for it.
“No.”
He stopped.
“I need it.”
“So do I.”
“I can protect it.”
She looked at him.
“That is exactly the problem.”
Marcus held her gaze.
After a moment, he handed it to her.
A small thing.
A simple thing.
But Ava noticed.
Because for the first time that night, he gave her something without deciding what she should do with it.
They left the office together.
Not as a couple.
Not as allies.
Something less certain.
Something more fragile.
The hallway outside was crowded.
Several guests had gathered near the entrance.
A man with a camera stood outside the glass doors.
Another person held a microphone.
Ava recognized the look on people’s faces.
Curiosity mixed with hunger.
The kind of attention that arrived before anyone knew the facts.
Richard Whitmore was nowhere in sight.
That worried Ava more than if he had been standing there.
People who controlled situations rarely stood in the middle of the chaos they created.
The venue manager approached Marcus.
“Mr. Vale, I’m sorry.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
The manager lowered his voice.
“Someone sent information to several local outlets.”
“What information?”
The manager looked uncomfortable.
Then he handed Marcus a phone.
Ava stepped closer.
On the screen was a photo.
Not from tonight.
A photo of Marcus and Ava.
Together.
Outside a courthouse.
Three years earlier.
Ava remembered the day.
They had been investigating a corporate fraud case.
Marcus had been there because his company was involved in a lawsuit.
The picture made them look close.
Closer than they were.
The headline below it was already spreading online.
Business Executive’s Secret Connection Raises Questions Before Wedding Ceremony.
Ava felt sick.
Not because the picture existed.
Because she understood what someone was trying to do.
They were not trying to reveal the truth.
They were trying to make every version of the truth look suspicious.
Marcus handed the phone back.
“We need to leave.”
Ava looked at him.
“No.”
He frowned.
“What?”
She looked toward the reporters.
Then at the guests watching them.
“Leaving makes it look like we have something to hide.”
Marcus stared.
“You want to talk to them?”
“I want to control what I can.”
“That’s dangerous.”
Ava almost smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part where you decide what I can handle.”
Marcus went quiet.
Ava walked toward the entrance.
Every step felt heavier.
Every person watching felt like another piece of pressure.
But she kept walking.
Because for the first time all night, she was not following Marcus into someone else’s truth.
She was choosing her own.
The reporters noticed Ava before they noticed Marcus.
That surprised her.
For years, she had learned to move through rooms without attracting attention.
She was the person behind the investigation, the person reading documents while executives argued in conference rooms, the person asking questions nobody wanted to answer.
She was not the person standing in front of cameras.
But tonight, with the wedding arch behind her and the broken ceremony visible through the glass, everyone wanted to know who she was.
A reporter lifted a microphone.
“Ms. Bennett, are you involved with Marcus Vale?”
The question was so direct that Ava almost stopped walking.
Not because it embarrassed her.
Because it revealed how little they knew and how confident they were anyway.
She looked at the reporter.
“I think the more important question is why you were given a photograph from three years ago instead of the documents we found tonight.”
The reporter lowered the microphone slightly.
Ava saw the shift.
They had expected denial.
They had expected panic.
They had not expected her to redirect.
Another reporter stepped forward.
“What documents?”
Marcus moved closer.
Not in front of her.
Beside her.
Ava noticed.
A small difference.
A meaningful one.
“Documents connected to financial activity involving my family,” Ava said.
The reporters began speaking over each other.
“Are you accusing the Whitmore family of wrongdoing?”
“Was this wedding canceled because of a scandal?”
“Is Marcus Vale involved?”
Ava felt the pressure rising.
This was the moment where people made mistakes.
A person under attack either said too much or said nothing.
Both could be used against them.
She looked at Marcus.
He looked back.
For once, he did not tell her what to do.
So she answered.
“I’m saying that there are questions that deserve answers.”
It was not satisfying enough for the cameras.
That was probably why it was useful.
People wanted certainty.
The truth rarely arrived that way.
A venue employee asked everyone to move away from the entrance.
The reporters continued shouting questions.
Ava stepped back inside.
Her hands were shaking.
She hated that Marcus noticed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
The answer surprised him.
Maybe because she usually gave better answers.
“I’m not okay.”
She looked at him.
“My mother’s name is on a document connected to the company that destroyed my father’s business.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“I know.”
“And reporters have a picture of us.”
“Yes.”
“And your first instinct is still to ask if I’m okay.”
Marcus looked confused.
“What should I have done?”
Ava looked away.
She did not know.
That was the problem.
She was angry because he cared.
She was angry because he had hidden things.
She was angry because both things could be true.
Lena joined them near the hallway.
“My father left.”
May you like
Ava looked at her.
“What?”
