It was not because of the physical pain,
It was because the person standing in front of her was about to become her son’s wife.
“A woman like you shouldn’t be ruining my wedding photos,” Inès said, her voice turning ice-cold.
Béatrice looked around.
The witnesses looked away.
No one dared intervene.
Then, Inès went even further.
She viciously grabbed the midnight-blue silk of Béatrice’s gown.
“You wanted everyone looking at you? Fine. Take a look now.”
With a violent wrench, she pulled.
The silk gave way.
The sharp sound of tearing fabric seemed louder than any whisper in the room.
The bespoke gown hung torn open along the side.
Béatrice stood there, clutching the shredded pieces of cloth against herself, completely unable to process how a day meant to celebrate love had just devolved into a nightmare.
Moments later, she stepped out into the grand gallery.
Her footsteps echoed along the antique parquet floor.
She had only one thought:
To leave,
To vanish before her son could witness what had just occurred.
Fate, however, had other plans.
Alexandre was standing right at the end of the corridor.
The moment he saw his mother, his expression shifted.
He immediately noticed the crimson welt across her cheek.
He saw the shredded gown.
He realized that something catastrophic had just transpired.
Béatrice approached him,
Her voice trembling slightly.
“Alexandre… she just hit me.”
For a few agonizing seconds, she waited.
She waited for her son to react,
To defend her,
To demand an explanation.
Alexandre, however, looked around.
He saw the arriving guests,
The influential families,
The photographers,
The corporate executives.
And instead of taking his mother’s hand…
He cast his eyes downward.
“Mom… please.”
Béatrice remained silent.
“Just sweep this under the rug.”
Those words stung far worse than the slap.
“What?”
Alexandre whispered,
“Don’t ruin the best day of my life over… a meaningless piece of fabric.”
Béatrice stared at her son for several long seconds.
The man standing before her was no longer the little boy she had spent her life protecting.
He was a grown man who had just chosen silence.
She gently wiped away a stray tear that threatened to spill over.
Then, her countenance shifted completely.
There was no longer any visible anger,
No lingering sorrow,
Only an unbreakable resolve.
“Understood.”
Alexandre looked up.
“Mom…”
She was already stepping back.
“I am leaving.”
She turned on her heel.
Every step toward the grand exit felt as though it were tearing away a piece of her past life.
Yet just as she reached the heavy entrance doors of the estate…
Hurried footsteps echoed behind her.
Monsieur Vaneau, the estate’s general manager, rushed down the corridor holding a massive leather ledger in his hands.
His expression was dead serious.
“Madame Béatrice! You cannot leave!”
Inès appeared right behind him alongside Alexandre.
She was already smirking.
“Let her leave. The priest is waiting for us.”
The manager, however, looked only at one person:
Béatrice.
He slowly opened the ledger.
“Mademoiselle Valmont, I believe you have failed to grasp something rather fundamental.”
Inès’s smirk vanished.
“And what would that be?”
Monsieur Vaneau pointed his finger to a line in the contract.
“The Château de Saint-Clair was not leased to the bride and groom.”
He paused deliberately.
“It is exclusively reserved for Madame Béatrice Delorme.”
Silence swallowed the entire hallway.
Alexandre stared at his mother in utter shock.
Inès went pale.
“That’s… that’s impossible…”
The manager continued,
“According to the signed terms and conditions, should Madame Delorme depart the grounds prior to the ceremony, the event is immediately suspended, and all guests must be evacuated.”
Every drop of color drained from Inès’s face.
For the first time all day…
She was truly terrified.
Yet nobody had uncovered the real secret just yet.
Because a few seconds later…
Every chandelier in the château went dark all at once.
Absolute silence plunged the entire estate into pitch blackness.
Then, a massive projector screen situated behind the altar flickered to life,
And a video began to play:
A recording that no one in that room was ever supposed to see.
To be continued…
Chapter 2 — The Son Who Chose His Love Over His Mother
For a few seconds, no one could comprehend what had just taken place.
The Château de Saint-Clair, which moments before had glittered under hundreds of golden lights, was now steeped in an almost surreal silence.
The guests exchanged uneasy glances.
The catering staff froze mid-motion.
The musicians stopped playing entirely.
Even the quietest murmurs died away.
In the center of this cavernous, darkened hall, Béatrice Delorme stood motionless.
She was still holding the torn pieces of her gown together against her body.
Yet shame was no longer written across her face;
Instead, it was an eerie sense of calm,
As if, having lost everything in a matter of minutes, she had finally ceased to feel afraid.
A few yards away from her, Inès Valmont scrambled to maintain her composure,
Though her hands were trembling slightly.
She stared up at the giant screen installed behind the altar,
Then turned to Alexandre.
“What on earth is that?”
Her fiancé looked just as bewildered as she did.
“I… I don’t know…”
Béatrice, however, had known all along,
Right from the start.
She had simply been biding her time.
A few hours before the ceremony, while double-checking the final wedding arrangements, Béatrice had received an unexpected message.
A former employee from her company, Thomas Leroux, had forwarded her an encrypted digital file.
It was a brief message,
Consisting of a single sentence:
“Madame Delorme, you need to see this before it is too late.”
At first, she assumed it was a misunderstanding.
Yet upon opening the files, her heart had stopped:
Email exchanges,
Invoices,
Recorded wiretaps,
Concrete proof revealing that several arrangements surrounding this marriage were far from innocent.
She discovered that Inès was perhaps not just an overly ambitious young woman;
She uncovered a calculated scheme.
The screen lit up.
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