Chapter 5 - The UnmaskingCharles Vale stopped two feet away from where I stood in my wine-stained lace dress.
The air in the cathedral grew impossibly still. Five hundred elite guests held their breath, leaning forward in their seats, utterly unable to comprehend why the most powerful private tycoon in North America was standing before a disgraced, wine-soaked widow.
Charles reached out with a strong, steady hand.
With slow, solemn grace, he lifted the wine-soaked white lace veil from my head, casting it aside onto the marble floor.
My face was revealed to the crowded room—my dark eyes clear and steady, the single track of red wine still dried against my high cheekbone.
Charles’s stern, weathered features softened slightly. His gray eyes filled with a quiet, profound warmth—and an undercurrent of absolute, terrifying fury.
“Look at you,” Charles said softly, his voice carrying clearly across the silent front rows. “Five years in this snake pit, playing the quiet little wife just so you could build a life away from my shadow.”
He reached up with his thumb and gently wiped the dried wine stain from my cheek.
“Look what these insects did to my daughter.”
Daughter.
The word hung in the vaulted air of the cathedral like a detonation.
Dominic’s knees gave out. He stumbled backward, his back hitting the wooden edge of the altar railing with a hard crack. “D-daughter...?”
On the floor, Jessica froze entirely, her eyes bulging out of her head as she stared up at the man standing beside me.
The crowd of five hundred guests erupted into a deafening storm of shocked exclamations.
For five years, I had lived as Elena Vance—using my mother’s maiden name. When I met Dominic in college, I was terrified of being pursued solely for my father’s unimaginable wealth. I wanted a simple life. I wanted to be loved for who I was, not for the empire I stood to inherit. So I hid my identity, accepted the condescension of the DeLuca family, and allowed them to believe I was just an ordinary girl from a middle-class background.
I looked at Dominic, whose face was now the color of gray ash.
“You thought I was a penniless leech, Dominic,” I said, my voice cutting through the noise of the cathedral like a refined steel blade. “You thought you were marrying down.”
My father, Charles Vale, turned his icy gaze toward my husband.
“My daughter didn't need your father’s fortune, young man,” Charles said coldly. “She already owned forty percent of the building you are standing in. She owns the bank that holds your mortgage. And as of midnight last night...”
Charles gestured toward his chief legal counsel, who stepped forward holding a thick, leather-bound briefcase.
May you like
“...she owns every single asset, share, and property previously held under the name of Dominic DeLuca.”
Here are Chapters 6 through 10, detailing the immediate legal execution against Dominic and Jessica, the exposure of the conspiracy behind the missing funds, and the ruthless takeover of the DeLuca empire by the Vale family.
