Chapter 15: The Aunt Who Wanted Everything

Lydia Wilson had built her life on resentment.

The family records showed that she had once been expected to inherit a significant share of the Wilson company.

Then an audit uncovered missing funds.

She blamed her brother.

She blamed Mrs. Wilson.

She blamed my father for helping stabilize the company after her removal.

And when I became engaged to Bastian, she decided the Hale family was completing a takeover that had begun years earlier.

"She never believed the investment saved us," Mrs. Wilson said. "She believed your father used our weakness to gain influence."

"Did he?" I asked.

"No. He refused equity when we offered it."

That sounded exactly like my father.

Lydia had vanished overseas after the scandal.

She returned quietly three months before my engagement ended.

Her passport records showed entry under her married name.

Her new identity matched none of the names Elena knew.

But one bank transfer connected them.

The same offshore company that paid Elena had purchased a warehouse outside the city.

Police raided it before dawn.

Lydia was gone.

Inside, they found photographs, family records, copies of wedding contracts, and an entire wall devoted to the Wilson company.

At the center hung a photograph of me.

Across my face, someone had written:

The wrong bride.

Thayer doubled security.

I agreed without argument.

Lydia was not merely trying to frighten me.

She believed I represented something stolen from her.

Bastian heard about the warehouse from his lawyer.

He called me immediately.

"Aunt Lydia contacted me last month," he said.

"You did not think that was worth mentioning?"

"I didn't know she was dangerous."

"What did she want?"

"She said she could help me regain control of the company."

"In exchange for what?"

"Information."

"About me?"

Silence.

"Bastian."

"The wedding venue. Your schedule. Thayer's security."

My hand tightened around the phone.

"You gave it to her."

"I thought she wanted leverage against my parents."

"You gave a stranger information about my movements because you wanted your inheritance back."

"She is family."

The excuse was so familiar that it almost made me laugh.

"Gina was your best friend. Lydia is your family. You always have a title ready for the person you choose over me."

"I didn't know she would threaten you."

"You never know because you never ask what your choices cost anyone else."

Thayer stood across the room, listening.

His expression promised consequences.

"Where did you meet her?" I asked.

Bastian gave me the address of a private club.

Security footage showed Lydia entering twice.

The club manager remembered her.

He also remembered the man who accompanied her.

Derek Sloan.

Derek had claimed he acted under Senator Cross.

Now it appeared he had been working for Lydia too.

The web was not one conspiracy.

It was several selfish people using the same weaknesses.

Money.

Shame.

Access.

Derek was questioned again.

Faced with the bank records, he confessed.

Lydia had paid him to provoke conflict between Bastian, Gina, and me.

The bachelor party had not been random.

Derek had encouraged Gina to attend.

He had made sure the hot water and cameras were ready.

He had fed Bastian's pride until humiliation became inevitable.

"Lydia wanted the marriage destroyed," the investigator explained.

"Why?"

"She believed Bastian losing the inheritance would weaken the Wilson board and create an opening for her return."

It had worked.

Almost.

The wedding had ended.

Bastian had been removed.

The company was unstable.

But Lydia had not anticipated Thayer.

My marriage to him would connect the Hale and Sinclair families, leaving her even farther from power.

So she escalated.

The rehearsal dinner approached under heavy security.

We moved it to my parents' estate and told guests only two hours beforehand.

For the first time in weeks, the evening felt normal.

Julian made a terrible speech.

Vivienne laughed with my mother.

Mrs. Wilson sat quietly beside my father.

Even Gina had submitted a written statement to investigators confirming Derek's role.

Then the lights went out.

The estate fell into darkness.

Security alarms sounded.

Thayer pulled me behind him.

"Stay down."

Emergency lights activated.

A woman stood at the far end of the dining room.

She wore a red dress and the Wilson signet ring.

Lydia.

In one hand, she held a gun.

In the other, she held a remote.

"No one moves," she said.

Security surrounded the room but could not fire without risking the guests.

Lydia smiled at Mrs. Wilson.

"You always did take what belonged to me."

"Nothing here belongs to you," Mrs. Wilson replied.

"The company did."

"You stole from it."

"I took what Father would never give me."

Her gaze moved to me.

"And then this girl arrived to finish the theft."

"My family never wanted your company," I said.

"Liar."

She lifted the remote.

"There are explosives beneath this house."

My mother gasped.

Thayer's hand tightened around mine.

Lydia looked at him.

"Call off the wedding. Transfer your shares in the Wilson rescue fund to me. Then perhaps everyone leaves alive."

"You do not control those shares," Thayer said.

"No. She does."

Every eye turned to me.

I understood then.

Years ago, when my father saved the Wilson company, he had placed the emergency investment rights in a trust.

My trust.

Lydia did not only want revenge.

She wanted my signature.