Chapter 6 - BLOOD UNDER THE DRESS
Caleb was waiting in the side-room beside the altar.
He turned when I entered.
“Maren?”
“I need—”
The room tilted.
My knees gave.
Caleb caught me before I hit the floor.
“What happened?”
“I’m okay.”
“You are not okay.”
He looked down.
Then froze.
A dark stain had begun spreading beneath the front folds of my red wedding gown.
His face went white.
“Why is there blood under your dress?”
I grabbed his lapels with both hands.
“Lock the door.”
“Maren—”
“Please.”
He looked toward the hallway.
Then back at me.
“Who did this?”
My breathing shook.
I pulled him close enough that my mouth nearly touched his ear.
“My father did this.”
Everything in Caleb’s face changed.
Not panic.
Not rage.
Something colder.
“Did he hit you?”
“He grabbed me. I hit the table.”
“Why?”
“The key.”
Footsteps approached outside.
I tore at the hidden seam.
My fingers would not work.
Caleb helped.
The stitches snapped.
The old brass key dropped into my palm.
I forced it into his.
“Take it.”
He stared.
“This is Eleanor’s key?”
“Yes.”
He immediately crossed the room and locked the door.
The footsteps stopped outside.
A shadow moved behind the frosted glass.
Then Dad’s voice.
“Maren.”
Caleb stepped between me and the door.
“Go away.”
“This is family business.”
Caleb almost laughed.
“I’m family now.”
Silence.
That sentence mattered more than either of us understood.
Dad tried the handle.
Once.
Then stopped.
I grabbed my phone.
“Call Judith.”
Caleb dialed.
Speaker.
Judith answered.
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Conrad found the key.”
Judith’s voice sharpened.
“Does he have it?”
Caleb looked at his fist.
“No.”
“Good.”
I pressed one hand against my lower abdomen.
“Judith, why does he need it so badly?”
A pause.
Then:
“That key opens the family vault.”
“I know.”
“No, Maren.”
Judith’s voice became urgent.
“You don’t understand the timing.”
Caleb looked at the phone.
“What timing?”
“The vault contains the original transfer ledgers Eleanor sealed before her death.”
Pounding hit the door.
I flinched.
Caleb moved fully in front of me.
Judith continued.
“Conrad needed Maren married first.”
“Why?” Caleb asked.
“Because before the marriage, destroying those records would only expose him.”
“And after?”
“After the marriage, he can claim the missing documents disappeared during the trust transition under Maren’s custody.”
I stared at the phone.
He was not merely trying to destroy evidence.
He intended to make me responsible for its disappearance.
Pounding hit the door again.
This time harder.
Caleb closed his fist around the key.
Then Judith said the sentence that made my husband look toward me in horror.
May you like
“If Conrad gets that key before midnight, Maren becomes the easiest person to blame.”
And outside the frosted glass, two more silhouettes appeared beside my father.
