CHAPTER 2: THE MESSAGES ON THE SCREEN
CHAPTER 2: THE MESSAGES ON THE SCREEN
The giant wedding screen flickered.
A folder opened.
Ryan's name.
Amber's name.
And the first private chat appeared.
For three full seconds, nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The ocean waves crashed softly behind the ceremony.
Then the guests started reading.
Amber: "She still trusts us."
Ryan: "She always does."
A murmur swept through the crowd.
Ryan's mother slowly lowered her sunglasses.
Amber stopped screaming from the pool.
The smile vanished from her face.
I watched both of them carefully.
For months, they thought I knew nothing.
For months, they thought I was too pregnant, too distracted, too emotional to notice.
They were wrong.
The next message appeared.
Amber: "Once the merger is complete, you can leave her."
Ryan: "Not yet. Her signature is worth more than the wedding."
Gasps erupted across the beachfront.
Someone dropped a champagne glass.
Ryan's father stood up.
"What is this?"
I didn't answer.
The screen did.
Another message appeared.
This one was dated seven months earlier.
Two months after I discovered I was pregnant.
Amber: "What about the baby?"
Ryan: "The baby complicates things."
The crowd fell silent.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Then came the message that changed everything.
Ryan: "If she loses the baby, everything becomes easier."
My mother covered her mouth.
Several guests audibly gasped.
One bridesmaid burst into tears.
Ryan's face turned completely white.
"Isabella—"
"Don't."
My voice was calm.
Much calmer than I felt.
Because I remembered the night I had fallen down the stairs.
The night Ryan insisted it was an accident.
The night Amber happened to be visiting.
The night I almost lost my daughter.
The next message appeared.
Amber: "Are you sure nobody suspects?"
Ryan: "She believes whatever I tell her."
A collective wave of disgust moved through the crowd.
People who had known Ryan for years suddenly looked at him like a stranger.
Because that's what he was.
A stranger wearing a familiar face.
Amber climbed out of the pool.
Her expensive white dress hung heavily from her body.
Her mascara streaked her cheeks.
For the first time all afternoon, she looked scared.
"Turn it off!"
she screamed.
"TURN IT OFF!"
Nobody moved.
The AV director looked directly at me.
I nodded.
The screen continued.
Photo after photo.
Message after message.
Hotel receipts.
Private dinners.
Flight confirmations.
A two-year affair.
Not a mistake.
Not a moment of weakness.
A carefully hidden second relationship.
Ryan took a step toward me.
"Please."
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it wasn't.
It was tragic.
"Please?"
I repeated.
"That's the word you chose?"
Then the final file opened.
Unlike the others, it wasn't a message.
It was a video.
The timestamp showed three nights earlier.
Recorded in the hotel bar.
Ryan and Amber sat alone.
Neither knew they were being filmed.
The audio played across the entire beach.
Amber: "After tomorrow she'll be trapped."
Ryan: "The marriage only needs to last long enough."
Amber: "And then?"
Ryan smiled.
A smile I had never seen before.
Cold.
Calculating.
Cruel.
Then he said six words.
Six words that ended everything.
"She was never the first choice."
The crowd erupted.
Ryan's mother burst into tears.
His father looked physically sick.
Amber closed her eyes.
Because now everyone knew.
Everything.
Or so they thought.
I slowly reached into the pocket of my wedding dress.
Then I pulled out a small envelope.
"Actually," I said.
"There is one more thing."
Ryan froze.
Amber froze.
Both of them recognized the envelope immediately.
And that told me everything I needed to know.
I handed it to Ryan's father.
"Read it."
The older man's hands shook as he opened it.
Inside was a DNA report.
He scanned the page.
Then scanned it again.
His expression changed.
Confusion.
Shock.
Disbelief.
Finally he whispered:
"No."
Ryan lunged forward.
"Give me that."
Too late.
His father was already reading aloud.
The beach fell silent as the words echoed through the speakers.
Probability of paternity: 0.0%
Every guest stared.
Ryan looked like he had been struck by lightning.
Amber's face drained of color.
Because suddenly a new question appeared.
A terrifying question.
If Ryan wasn't the father of Amber's child...
Then who was?
And why had both of them been hiding the answer?
Before anyone could speak, a black SUV suddenly stopped near the entrance to the resort.
The driver's door opened.
A tall man stepped out.
Amber saw him.
And screamed.
Not angrily.
Not dramatically.
In terror.
Pure terror.
The man removed his sunglasses.
Looked directly at Amber.
Then at the giant screen.
Then smiled.
A smile that made Ryan stumble backward.
Because apparently...
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The biggest secret hadn't been exposed yet.
TO BE CONTINUED...
