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One Sip of Milk Killed My Mother. So I Tore Up Our Wedding Plans.
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My mother died in a private hospital outside New York City, right after drinking the milk my fiancé's secretary, Chloe Sutton, had brought her. I demanded that her death be investigated. Before anyone could, Lucian Hayes had the milk poured out and the cup washed clean. "The hospital says she had a heart attack. Chloe was only trying to be kind. You can't accuse someone of murder just because your mom is gone." Chloe cried and said she was frightened. He moved her behind him and demanded that I apologize. I took off my engagement ring. "We've only just lost my mother, and you're already defending Chloe." "Lucian, the wedding is off." That night, he knelt in front of me with red-rimmed eyes. "Cece, it's not that I won't investigate. I'm afraid it will turn out to have been an accident, and you'll be hurt all over again. Before she died, Mom held my hand and made me promise to marry you and take care of you. Won't you grant her last wish?" He took out a ring made from my design and slid it back onto my ring finger. Five years earlier, a restaurant had exploded. He'd shielded me from a falling steel frame, a splinter of wood piercing his right arm. Even then, he'd picked up a piece of plastic cord and tied it around my finger. "Cece, once we get out of here, I'll make you a ring with my own hands." I looked at the scar on his arm that still hadn't faded, and in the end, I believed him. On our wedding day, I put on my dress and got into the car I'd bought him for a million dollars. As we passed the last intersection, the rear-seat entertainment screen lit up. Intimate photos popped up one after another. In them, Lucian held Chloe and kissed her slightly rounded belly. Then a woman's laughter came through the speakers. "Her mom told her to call off the engagement right before she died. How do you have the nerve to say the opposite?" Lucian sounded unconcerned. "Dead people don't talk. Mention a dying wish, put a ring on her finger, and she climbs right into the wedding car like a good girl, doesn't she?" Chloe asked again: "But you're the one who gave me that stuff, and I'm the one who delivered the milk. If she really digs into it, neither of us gets away." "The report we gave her says it was a heart attack. She watched the cup being washed herself. What evidence does she have left? Once the wedding's over and I have the Sinclair money, I'll take you and the baby away." I lowered my head and looked at the ring on my finger. So he had finally kept his promise from five years ago to make me stop investigating my mother's death. And here I was in a wedding dress, on my way to marry the man who killed her. Tears fell onto the skirt of my dress. I took out my phone and recorded the conversation playing through the speakers, then called my brother. "Sebastian, Mom didn't die of an illness. I want Lucian and Chloe to pay." I took off the ring and looked up at the driver. "Turn around. Take me to the police station."
Chapters (5)
Chapter 1
### Chapter 1
My mother died in a private hospital outside New York City, right after drinking the milk my fiancé's secretary, Chloe Sutton, had brought her.
I demanded that her death be investigated. Before anyone could, Lucian Hayes had the milk poured out and the cup washed clean.
"The hospital says she had a heart attack. Chloe was only trying to be kind. You can't accuse someone of murder just because your mom is gone."
Chloe cried and said she was frightened. He moved her behind him and demanded that I apologize.
I took off my engagement ring.
"We've only just lost my mother, and you're already defending Chloe."
"Lucian, the wedding is off."
That night, he knelt in front of me with red-rimmed eyes.
"Cece, it's not that I won't investigate. I'm afraid it will turn out to have been an accident, and you'll be hurt all over again. Before she died, Mom held my hand and made me promise to marry you and take care of you. Won't you grant her last wish?"
He took out a ring made from my design and slid it back onto my ring finger.
Five years earlier, a restaurant had exploded. He'd shielded me from a falling steel frame, a splinter of wood piercing his right arm. Even then, he'd picked up a piece of plastic cord and tied it around my finger.
"Cece, once we get out of here, I'll make you a ring with my own hands."
I looked at the scar on his arm that still hadn't faded, and in the end, I believed him.
On our wedding day, I put on my dress and got into the car I'd bought him for a million dollars.
As we passed the last intersection, the rear-seat entertainment screen lit up.
Intimate photos popped up one after another. In them, Lucian held Chloe and kissed her slightly rounded belly.
Then a woman's laughter came through the speakers.
"Her mom told her to call off the engagement right before she died. How do you have the nerve to say the opposite?"
Lucian sounded unconcerned. "Dead people don't talk. Mention a dying wish, put a ring on her finger, and she climbs right into the wedding car like a good girl, doesn't she?"
Chloe asked again:
"But you're the one who gave me that stuff, and I'm the one who delivered the milk. If she really digs into it, neither of us gets away."
"The report we gave her says it was a heart attack. She watched the cup being washed herself. What evidence does she have left? Once the wedding's over and I have the Sinclair money, I'll take you and the baby away."
I lowered my head and looked at the ring on my finger.
So he had finally kept his promise from five years ago to make me stop investigating my mother's death.
And here I was in a wedding dress, on my way to marry the man who killed her.
Tears fell onto the skirt of my dress.
I took out my phone and recorded the conversation playing through the speakers, then called my brother.
"Sebastian, Mom didn't die of an illness. I want Lucian and Chloe to pay."
I took off the ring and looked up at the driver.
"Turn around. Take me to the police station."
...
The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror.
"Miss Sinclair, the wedding venue is just ahead..."
"Turn around."
I sent the recording to my brother and watched until the progress circle beside the file disappeared.
Sebastian Sinclair called right away.
"Celeste, where are you?"
"In the wedding car. Listen to the recording. They said it themselves..."
Headlights flashed at us from the side.
The driver slammed on the brakes, and the screech drowned out my brother's voice.
The next second, a black sedan smashed into the car.
Glass shattered. The seat belt slammed me back against the seat, and pain tore through my calf.
My phone landed by my feet. The call was still connected.
I reached down for it, but the car door was pulled open first.
Lucian stood outside in his wedding suit, the boutonniere I'd chosen pinned to his chest.
I looked at him through blurred vision.
He glanced toward the wedding venue first, then frowned at the driver. "We were almost there. Why did you suddenly turn around?"
"Miss Sinclair said she wanted to go to the police station."
Lucian's face changed.
He bent down and saw the blood on my skirt. But he reached for my phone first.
I grabbed his wrist.
"Give it back."
He glanced down at the screen. The call had already dropped.
"Hospital first. Everything else can wait until you're thinking clearly."
He pried my fingers loose and handed the phone to his assistant.
"Stay with her. Don't let anyone use what happened today to stir up trouble."
Someone outside shouted that the bride was hurt. Lucian turned and blocked a raised camera.
"Take her to the hospital. Clear this up. Don't keep the guests from getting inside."
I finally let go.
The file had already been sent.
He could take the phone, but he couldn't take back the recording my brother had received.
When I woke, a nurse was adjusting my IV drip.
My calf had been stitched and my scalp was scraped. The examinations hadn't revealed any more serious injuries so far.
I pushed myself upright. My first words were, "Could I borrow a phone?"
"The man who came in with you said he was your fiancé. Do you want him contacted?"
Lucian's assistant stood in the doorway.
"Miss Sinclair, Mr. Hayes is dealing with things at the venue. Your phone was damaged in the crash. We'll return it once it's repaired."
"I'll borrow the hospital's phone."
The assistant didn't move.
I looked at him and slowly pressed the call button.
"We never married. He isn't my husband. If you want to stop me, call the doctor and hospital security in here and explain it to them."
The assistant's expression stiffened, and he finally stepped aside.
The nurse brought me a phone.
My brother picked up, his voice tight.
"Celeste?"
"I'm in the hospital. I hurt my leg. Did you get the recording?"
"I got it. I've saved a separate copy. I changed my flight at the airport. I'll be there tonight. Daniel Mitchell is coming to get you first."
Tears suddenly spilled down my face.
"Sebastian, back there, I thought..."
"Don't be scared. Get your injuries treated first. Don't go anywhere alone with them, and don't argue with them anymore."
After the call, I gave him the hospital address.
This time, I didn't ask Lucian why.
I was going to leave with that recording.
Just then, laughter came from outside the door.
"Going in now, Mrs. Hayes? Lucian said to let her rest."
"I can't even check on her?"
Chloe pushed open the door in a white evening gown.
She raised a hand to rest on the doorframe, and the first thing I saw was the diamond ring on her ring finger.
It was the ring I'd spent three years designing and revising.
She followed my gaze and smiled.
"After your accident, Luc brought me up to the altar instead. He said the party should go on."
"He said we couldn't leave a room full of guests waiting for nothing."
I knew it couldn't make her his legal wife. That didn't make the public humiliation any less deliberate.
Chapter 2
### Chapter 2
Kyle Lawson and two others followed her in and set a box of monogrammed wedding favors on the bedside table.
"Don't overthink it. The whole Mrs. Hayes thing was just for show. She was filling in for you."
The title came easily to him. Chloe accepted it just as naturally.
I glanced at the favors. "Do the people at the ceremony know the bride was replaced?"
Chloe's smile deepened.
"Of course. Luc put the ring on my finger himself. Everyone saw."
I thought of the recording in the car.
He'd said that once he got the Sinclair money, he would leave with her and the baby.
He hadn't even bothered to leave me a shred of dignity at my own wedding.
I looked away. "Get out."
Kyle frowned, annoyed. "What kind of attitude is that? She's pregnant, and she still came all the way here to see you."
I pressed the call button again.
"Nurse, I need to rest."
The others drifted out. Chloe lingered while the nurse stepped away, ignoring my demand that she leave.
She stepped closer to the bed and lowered her voice.
"Weren't you always afraid of people calling you petty? Can't keep up the act today?"
I looked at her. "And the milk? Will you say that's just me being petty too?"
The smile on her face faded.
"The report's already out. Talking about it won't do you any good."
"Whether it does any good isn't up to you."
She stared at me, then suddenly raised her left hand.
"What about this, then? Do you want it back?"
A fine curve ran along the side of the setting. It had been part of the design since the first sketch I'd shown Lucian.
The ring I had designed was on her hand.
The one he'd put on mine was so carelessly made that even the details were rough.
"Keep it if you like it. Lucian's name and mine are engraved inside the band. Remember to have them ground off."
She looked down reflexively, and her expression soured.
A moment later, she yanked off the ring and threw it into the trash can. "Like I'd want anything of yours!"
Lucian pushed the door open at that exact moment.
Tears sprang to Chloe's eyes. She bent to retrieve it.
"Celeste, you can hate me, you can curse me, but why would you throw the ring away..."
Lucian steadied her and turned to look at me.
"You're hurt this badly, and you still can't leave her alone?"
I didn't explain.
"Where's my phone?"
"It broke."
"Bring it here. I want it, broken or not."
He studied my face for a few seconds.
"What did you see in the car?"
I didn't answer.
He told the others to leave, shut the door, and sat down by the bed.
"Someone put up those photos to set me up. You've just had an accident. Don't let them upset you."
So he already knew the photos had appeared.
But he didn't know yet what had played through the speakers.
I held out my hand. "My phone."
At last, he took it out of his pocket.
The screen was cracked but still lit up. I took the phone, locked it, and tucked it beside my pillow.
"Borrowing a phone gets you this worked up?" I asked.
"I need your permission to contact my own family now?"
His brow twitched. Then he reined in his temper.
"Celeste, I can explain about your mom. You wanted answers, so I've arranged everything at the venue. The press is there too."
"Explain what?"
"You'll see when you get there. We'll clear the air today, so people will stop gossiping about your mother."
I looked at him and didn't agree right away.
A text came in from Daniel Mitchell, asking which floor I was on.
I sent back my room number, then turned to Lucian.
"The hospital needs to confirm someone is accompanying me before I leave. Someone I trust is coming. We'll go together once he arrives."
His expression darkened, but he couldn't object in front of the nurse who had just walked in.
Only after Daniel arrived did I agree to go to the venue.
He pushed my wheelchair. All the way there, Lucian kept asking which company he worked for.
Daniel only said, "Mr. Sinclair asked me to look after Miss Sinclair."
The venue doors opened, and Lucian was still saying, "Don't overthink it."
But I had already seen the large framed photograph of my mother in the center of the room.
My mother's photo was surrounded by white flowers. The same image filled the screen behind the stage, with Chloe standing beside it.
The emcee's voice came through the speakers.
"Next, we have the memorial service Mr. Hayes and Miss Sutton have prepared for Mrs. Sinclair."
Chapter 3
### Chapter 3
I gripped the armrests of the wheelchair.
My mother's funeral had already taken place. Everything had been kept simple, as she would have preferred.
I had never consented to a memorial service.
Lucian bent to straighten my skirt.
I pushed his hand away.
"Who told you to hang my mom's photo here?"
"What's wrong with letting everyone say goodbye to her?"
Up on stage, Chloe had already taken the microphone.
"Mrs. Sinclair passed away so suddenly. It's only natural that Celeste can't accept it. There have been misunderstandings lately, but I've never blamed her."
She looked over at me, her eyes glistening.
"I asked everyone to stay so Celeste would know that Luc and I have always had Mrs. Sinclair in our thoughts."
I picked up the program from the table.
The final item read: Family remarks. Clearing up misunderstandings.
Tucked inside was a speech that had already been written for me.
"My mother passed away suddenly from illness, and in my grief, I misjudged Miss Sutton..."
So his promised explanation was a demand that I admit I was wrong.
I pushed myself up on the armrests.
Mitchell steadied me, and I handed him the speech. "Hold on to this for me."
Lucian reached for it. Mitchell turned aside, keeping it out of reach.
"Celeste, just hear her out."
"Hear what?"
I looked toward the stage.
Chloe lowered her head and touched her belly. "Mrs. Sinclair always hoped Luc would have a child. I believe that, watching from heaven, she would give us her blessing..."
"Give me the microphone."
My voice cut her off.
Lucian immediately stepped in front of me. "Calm down."
Down in the audience, Kyle stood up and set a bottle down hard on the table.
"Your mom tried to scam Mrs. Hayes, and Lucian didn't even hold it against you. He went out of his way to arrange this service. Don't be ungrateful!"
I slowly turned my head.
"A scam?"
"Kyle!" Lucian's voice was low and sharp.
Kyle fell silent, but his defiant glare stayed on me.
It suddenly dawned on me what they had been telling people these past few days.
My mother had died without a proper explanation. To hear them tell it, she was a con artist trying to frame Chloe.
"After she drank that milk, she never left the resuscitation room alive."
I looked at Kyle. "Tell me how that was a scam."
Someone in the audience raised a camera.
Lucian signaled for them to stop filming, then pressed a glass of wine into my hand.
"The press is here. Make a toast to Chloe and clear up the misunderstanding."
"And if I don't?"
He leaned close, speaking too quietly for anyone else to hear.
"Your mom's photo is still hanging up there. Don't make this ugly for everyone."
I looked at him and took the glass.
His shoulders visibly relaxed.
I walked up to Chloe, but I didn't apologize.
Instead, I picked up a small glass carafe of milk from the coffee service nearby and poured some milk into a clean glass, then added the red wine.
"Don't you love bringing people milk?"
I held the glass out to her.
"Today it's your turn to drink."
She took a step back, the color draining completely from her face.
"What did you put in it?"
"You watched me do it."
I pushed it closer. "You saw exactly what went into it. What are you afraid of?"
Lucian knocked the glass away.
The glass scraped my arm before shattering on the floor.
He shielded Chloe and growled, "Celeste, don't push me."
I stared at the milk spilled across the floor.
Had he protected my mother like that when she collapsed?
I looked up and was about to speak when the big screen behind him suddenly changed.
My mother's memorial portrait disappeared, replaced by intimate photos of Lucian and Chloe.
Chapter 4
### Chapter 4
The room erupted.
Lucian looked back, then turned on me, his expression darkening.
"You did this?"
"You took those photos. Why ask me?"
He didn't argue. He just reached for my phone.
Mitchell stepped in front of me.
"This has nothing to do with you," Lucian said coldly.
Several bodyguards closed in. One seized my arm. In the struggle, my calf struck a table leg.
Pain shot through the stitches, and blood seeped out from under the gauze.
I saw the Sinclair Group logo on the bodyguard's chest, and my heart sank.
After my mother died, I had handed the company's affairs to Lucian to manage for the time being.
Now my own family's bodyguards were helping him take my belongings.
Mitchell held off two of them, but Lucian still snatched the phone away.
"What are you looking for?" I asked.
He went through my photos first, then my messages, and didn't answer.
I watched his hands, my heart still racing.
The original recording was on that phone. I couldn't let him keep digging.
But my brother had safely stored the backup. Even destroying my phone wouldn't let Lucian put things back the way he wanted.
"Found anything, Mr. Hayes?"
I raised my voice. "You took my phone in front of all these people. Show them whatever you find."
The cameras swung back to him.
He stopped scrolling, his expression growing darker.
Just then, someone in the audience started clapping.
A man made his way through the crowd to the front of the stage.
"Stop looking. I put the photos up."
Lucian's head snapped up, and his expression changed.
"Simon Shaw?"
The man walked straight to Chloe and took her hand.
"I'm here to pick her up."
His eyes dropped to her belly.
"And my child."
For a moment, the room went silent. Then camera shutters clicked furiously.
"Mr. Hayes, the baby isn't yours?"
"Did you know about this morning's ceremony?"
Chloe kept her head down and didn't deny it.
Lucian stared at her, his lips slowly losing their color.
Yet when the reporters pushed forward, he still reached out on instinct to shield her.
"Whose child it is doesn't matter."
Simon laughed.
Looking at the three of them, I finally understood something.
Lucian had been using the Sinclair family's resources to arrange a future for himself and Chloe.
But Chloe seemed to have made her own plans for what would become of him.
Simon looked down at her. "We have what we came for. Let's go."
"What is it?" Lucian demanded.
Neither of them answered.
When he turned away, I took my phone back.
Mitchell stepped beside me. "The car is outside."
I nodded and got ready to leave.
But Chloe suddenly called out to me.
"Celeste, don't you want to know why your mom suddenly told you to call off the engagement?"
I stopped in my tracks.
Before she died, my mother had called to insist that I end the engagement.
When I asked why, she only said we'd talk when we saw each other.
By the time I reached the hospital, she was dead.
Lucian said she had changed her mind before she died.
The recording had already proven that was a lie.
I still didn't know what my mother had discovered.
"Chloe!" Lucian barked.
She looked at his face and smiled.
"Ask him."
"He saw your mom alone before I brought her the milk."
Chapter 5
### Chapter 5
"Are you insane?"
Lucian grabbed Chloe's wrist hard.
"What good does saying any of this do you?"
Simon stepped forward and pulled his hand away.
Chloe rubbed her wrist and laughed coldly. "Why panic? Her mom only begged you to cancel the engagement and let her daughter go."
I slowly turned my head and looked at Lucian.
"Why did she beg you?"
He didn't look at me.
"What else have you been hiding from me?"
"Your mom was ill and emotionally unstable." He tugged at his tie. "She always had something against me. You know that."
I stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar.
"I asked why she had to beg you!"
My mother had supported the Sinclair family for years. She had never bowed to anyone.
She could have told me to end the engagement or stopped working with him. Why had she needed to beg?
Besides money, what else had he used to threaten her?
Lucian was silent for a moment, and the panic in his eyes slowly faded.
"She's already dead."
"Does anything she said still matter?"
My hand on his collar loosened, bit by bit.
It mattered.
I would find out what she had suffered before she died and who she had seen.
But he wasn't going to tell me.
Pressing him here would only reveal what I still hadn't uncovered.
I stepped back and braced myself against the edge of the table.
Chloe had already hooked her arm through Simon's and was heading for the door.
Lucian reached out to pull her back.
"Chloe, if you leave with him today, don't ever come back."
She didn't even turn her head.
"I wasn't planning to come back anyway."
I remembered Simon's name, and his words: We have what we came for.
Whatever lay between them involved more than an affair.
Lucian followed her a few steps before the reporters surrounded him again.
I took the chance to walk over to the memorial portrait, open the frame, and take out my mother's photo.
The frame's corner scraped my fingertip. I remembered taking that photograph: Mom had thought she was smiling too broadly and insisted I delete it.
I couldn't bring myself to.
And I couldn't bring myself to leave her here now, either.
Mitchell took my arm.
"Miss Sinclair, let's get your wounds treated first."
I put the photo in my bag, unfastened the small floral pin the stylist had attached to my dress, and set it on the table.
Lucian came out of the crowd just in time to see it.
"Celeste, leave the phone."
"What else do you want to take from me?"
"There's something wrong with what was in the car. I'll get to the bottom of it."
I looked at him and suddenly asked, "You didn't even ask what was playing in there, and you already know something's wrong with it?"
His expression stiffened.
Kyle walked over and blocked my way.
"Lucian told you to leave it. Don't think a few photos give you power over him."
I raised my phone and played a short clip of audio my brother had sent back to me.
"Mention a dying wish, put a ring on her finger, and she climbs right into the wedding car like a good girl, doesn't she?"
Lucian's voice rang out clearly.
I hit pause.
The reporters closed in. "Mr. Hayes, did you invent her mother's dying wish?"
"Did you use the deceased's wishes to pressure Miss Sinclair into continuing the engagement?"
Lucian stared hard at me.
I met his gaze and didn't back down again.
"Someone else has the complete recording. If anything of mine goes missing here today, someone will keep coming to you for answers."
With that, I removed Lucian from the wedding planning chat and sent the guests a message: The wedding is canceled. Please direct any questions to the planner.
"The engagement is off. Anything else goes through my lawyer."
Kyle still tried to reach for me.
Lucian finally spoke. "Let her go."
His expression was grim, but he kept his anger in check.
"She won't listen right now. After a night to cool off, she'll know to come home."
I didn't look back.
The venue doors closed behind me, and the evening breeze sent a chill through my wounds.
A black SUV was parked at the bottom of the steps. Mitchell helped me into the back seat.
"Mr. Sinclair has arranged for you to be seen at another hospital. We'll get your injuries treated. He'll come straight there when he lands."
I looked down to make sure I still had my phone, and my mother's photo too.
Only once we passed the intersection did I release my grip. My hands had gone numb.
My brother called, too.
"Cece, I'm coming to you now!"
