“I meant that—”
“You meant nothing.” She held up the document.
“Because while you were telling me I mattered, you were signing a contract to take everything my family built.”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
His mother stepped forward from the front row.
“Phoebe, dear, you’re misunderstanding—”
“Don’t.” Phoebe’s voice was sharp enough to cut glass.
“Don’t call me dear.
Don’t call me anything.”
Vivian Crawford’s mouth tightened.
“I was trying to protect my son—”
“From what?” Phoebe turned to face her.
“From a woman who loved him?
From a family that welcomed him?
From people who never once looked down on yours?”
Vivian said nothing.
Graham Crawford stood slowly from his chair.
His face looked ten years older than it had an hour ago.
“Vivian.” His voice was low.
“Did you know about this document?”
“Of course she did.” The blonde woman spoke from near the altar.
Her confidence was gone.
Her voice was flat.
“She had it drafted.”
Every head turned toward her.
“Who are you?” Graham asked.
“Simone Kerr.
I work for Mrs.
Crawford’s interior design company.” She swallowed.
“She asked me to be available today.
In case the wedding needed to be interrupted.”
“In case it needed to be—” Graham’s voice cracked.
“You planned to humiliate this girl from the beginning?”
Vivian’s hand gripped the back of a chair.
“I planned to protect this family’s name.
That girl was never going to be accepted in our circles.”
“Our circles?” Graham laughed — a broken, hollow sound.
“You mean the circles that Phoebe’s family’s money put us in?”
The room went quiet.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Father, this isn’t helping—”
“Sit down, Daniel.” Graham’s voice was steel.
“You don’t get to speak yet.”
Daniel sat.
For the first time all day, he looked small.
Phoebe’s grandfather watched from the doorway.
He hadn’t moved.
He hadn’t needed to.
“Miss Sterling.” One of the security team approached her quietly.
“We found something else in the groom’s office.
A phone.”
Phoebe took it.
She looked at the screen.
Messages.
Dozens of them.
Between Daniel and his mother.
She read one aloud.
“‘Make sure the prenup is signed before the wedding.
Once we’re married, her grandfather can’t touch the assets.
Then we phase her out within a year.'”
She looked at Daniel.
“Phase me out?”
