CHAPTER 2: The Name on the Contract
CHAPTER 2: The Name on the Contract
The ballroom was no longer just a wedding venue.
It was a property dossier in physical form.
Projected onto the massive screen behind the stage was a document.
Title:
WHITMORE GRAND BALLROOM OWNERSHIP AGREEMENT
Avery frowned. “What is this supposed to be?”
Logan stepped forward. “Some kind of trick?”
Caroline turned slightly toward them.
“No trick,” she said. “Just paperwork.”
She tapped her phone again.
The document zoomed in.
A signature appeared at the bottom.
Caroline Whitmore
A murmur spread through the crowd.
Then another page appeared.
Tax records.
Business registration.
Corporate ownership structure.
Every single one pointing back to Caroline.
Avery’s expression began to shift for the first time.
“That’s fake,” she said quickly. “This ballroom belongs to the Pierce Group. Logan told me—”
Logan suddenly went very quiet.
A man from the catering staff stepped forward hesitantly. “Miss Avery… the legal owner on our system… has always been Mrs. Whitmore.”
The room tilted.
Avery turned sharply. “What did you say?”
Caroline’s voice remained steady.
“When your father passed away, the assets didn’t disappear. They were transferred according to his will.”
She paused.
“And I was never ‘just your stepmother.’ I was the controlling shareholder of every property your father built.”
The silence this time was different.
Heavier.
Avery’s hand tightened around the empty champagne glass.
“That’s impossible,” she whispered.
Caroline met her eyes.
“No,” she said. “What’s impossible is how easily you forgot who signed your lifestyle into existence.”
Then she turned slightly toward Logan.
“And you,” she added softly, “should probably stop smiling.”
Because Logan Pierce was no longer smiling.
He was staring at his phone.
May you like
Refreshing something over and over.
His face slowly drained of color.
