Chapter 4 - THE GROOM WHO CHOSE WRONG
The Westbrook Hotel ballroom glittered by the time I arrived. Crystal chandeliers, white flowers, silver candlelight—everything curated to look timeless, which is what rich people call expensive when they want to sound tasteful. I found Jackson in a private suite wearing his father’s cufflinks and looking so much like Frank that for one miserable second I nearly forgot why I was there. I told him what Natalie had done. I showed him the note. I told him my dress had been destroyed and that Maria had seen his fiancée leaving my rooms before dawn. Jackson read the note once, handed it back, and exhaled like I had brought him a scheduling problem. “Mom, this is insane,” he said. “Why would Natalie do that?” “Because she wants me humiliated and out of the way,” I answered. “Because she thinks tomorrow morning belongs to her.” His face hardened. “This is exactly what she said you would do. You’re trying to blow up my wedding because you never accepted her.”
Natalie appeared at the door in white satin and practiced concern. “Oh my God,” she said, looking at my wig. “Eleanor, what did you do to your hair?” When I told her she already knew, she placed a hand over her chest and turned watery-eyed. Jackson immediately moved beside her. I watched my son choose performance over evidence right in front of me. He accused me of turning his wedding into a battlefield. During cocktail hour, I overheard Natalie telling guests I was emotionally unstable and struggling to accept “another woman in Jackson’s life.” Then I heard the ugliest line of all—she told two women near the bar that after the honeymoon, they might need to discuss “professional care” for me. She was not satisfied with shaving my head and destroying my clothes. She intended to take my dignity, my reputation, and my authority all before the money changed hands.
