Chapter 15 - THE RESERVATION
We found the note three days later.
Not because Martha gave it to us.
Because the restaurant manager discovered it inside a drawer in the bridal suite.
It was handwritten.
Emily,
You have spent years convincing Nick that love is enough.
Tomorrow, reality begins.
Marriage is bills, responsibility, reputation, and family.
You will discover quickly that you were never prepared for the life he should have had.
The rest was worse.
Not threatening.
Not violent.
Just cruel.
Martha predicted our marriage would fail.
She wrote that I would eventually embarrass Nick financially.
She wrote that he would resent me.
She wrote that one day he would understand she had been right.
Then came the final paragraph.
By the time you read this, I will already have given Nick the information he needs.
I stared at it.
“What information?”
Nick shook his head.
Then we noticed something written on the back.
A hotel name.
The Windsor Park.
Room 814.
A date.
The morning after our wedding.
Nick called the hotel.
The reservation had been canceled.
It had been booked under Martha’s name.
For two guests.
Nick asked who the second guest was.
The hotel refused to tell him.
Caroline heard about it and went quiet.
“I think I know.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
My stomach dropped.
Caroline explained.
“Martha asked me to meet her the morning after the wedding.”
“When?”
“About two months ago.”
“What for?”
“She said she would need my help after Nick realized he had made a mistake.”
Nick looked disgusted.
“She expected me to leave Emily on our wedding night?”
Caroline shook her head.
“I don’t think she expected it that fast.”
“Then what?”
Caroline hesitated.
“I think she planned to show you something.”
“The information mentioned in the note.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Caroline remembered something.
“She kept asking me whether you had a prenuptial agreement.”
Nick and I looked at each other.
We did.
It was simple.
Fair.
Mutual.
Neither of us considered it dramatic.
Martha had strongly encouraged Nick to demand one.
He had refused her version and hired an independent attorney.
Caroline continued.
“She said once you saw what Emily was really after, you’d need legal protection.”
I felt nauseated.
“What was I supposedly after?”
“Money.”
Nick laughed bitterly.
“Again.”
He picked up his phone.
This time, instead of calling Martha, he called the attorney who had prepared our agreement.
Five minutes later, his expression changed.
“What?”
I asked.
He put the call on speaker.
The attorney said, “Someone contacted my office nine days before your wedding.”
“Who?”
“She claimed to be Emily.”
I froze.
Nick stared at me.
“I never called.”
The attorney continued.
“We know.”
“How?”
“She refused to verify identifying information.”
“What did she want?”
“To know whether the agreement could be changed.”
My skin prickled.
“Changed how?”
“To create a much larger payment to Emily if the marriage ended.”
Nick closed his eyes.
May you like
Martha had been trying to manufacture evidence that I married him for money.
And if she had succeeded, she would have shown it to him immediately after our wedding.
