My heart stopped. My mouth went completely dry.
“Do you have a visual?”
Ryan handed me the tablet. It was a live feed from the security camera mounted at the iron gates at the bottom of the estate’s driveway.
I stared at the high-definition screen.
There she was.
My mother, Margaret.
She was wearing a dark, heavy dress, pointing her finger aggressively at the security guard’s chest, her mouth moving a mile a minute. Behind her stood my brother Gabriel. He was pacing back and forth, looking furious, occasionally kicking the gravel driveway. My father, Charles, was leaning against the hood of the rental car, looking utterly defeated and embarrassed.
“They are currently demanding access,” Ryan continued calmly. “The older female claims to be your biological mother. She is threatening to call the local police and report us for kidnapping if we do not let her through. The younger male has also made several physical threats against my staff. I have an extraction team on standby. Give me the word and I will have local law enforcement remove them for criminal trespassing immediately.”
I stared at the tablet. My hands started to shake, not from fear but from a sudden blinding surge of adrenaline and anger. Five years. Five years of absolute silence. They had stolen from me. They had erased me from their family. They had completely ignored my existence. And now, on the single most important day of my life, they had flown across the country to try and ruin it.
I looked up at Ryan. “How did they even know where the venue was? The invitations were strictly confidential.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He tapped the tablet screen again, switching to a different camera feed.
This one showed the parking lot area from about twenty minutes earlier.
“I was reviewing the footage from this morning,” Ryan said. “I noticed one of your guests acting highly suspicious. He walked out to the edge of the property line where cell reception is strongest and made a phone call. He also texted the exact GPS coordinates of the estate’s front gate.”
He zoomed in on the footage.
It was Dylan.
The betrayal hit me like a physical punch to the gut. Dylan had played the role of the sympathetic cousin perfectly. He had spent the last two days drinking my expensive wine, eating my catered food, and looking me in the eye while secretly feeding my location to the very people who had destroyed my childhood.
He was a spy.
He was a coward who still craved Margaret’s approval more than he valued my friendship.
“Do you want me to detain the guest, sir?” Ryan asked.
I took a deep, shuddering breath. I looked back down at the live feed of Margaret screaming at the gate guard.
The old Nathan, the weak, people-pleasing kid who just wanted to keep the peace, would have panicked. The old Nathan would have let Ryan call the police to quietly drag them away so nobody would find out about the messy family drama.
But I wasn’t that kid anymore.
I was Nathan Morrison.
And Morrisons do not hide.
I handed the tablet back to Ryan.
“No,” I said quietly. “Don’t call the police. Tell the gate guard to let their car through. I want you to escort them into the reception hall, but do not let them anywhere near the actual wedding ceremony. Keep them confined to the back of the reception building until dinner starts.”
Ryan looked surprised for a fraction of a second, but his professional mask quickly returned. “Are you absolutely certain, sir? They seem highly volatile.”
“I’m certain,” I said, a dark smile forming on my lips. “They came here to put on a show. Let’s give them front-row seats.”
I walked back into the groom’s suite.
Dylan looked up at me, his eyes darting nervously. “Everything okay, Nathan?”
I looked him dead in the eye. “Everything is absolutely perfect, Dylan. Better than I could have ever hoped.”
The ceremony itself took place in a beautiful open-air courtyard surrounded by blooming rose bushes. When the string quartet started playing and Chloe walked down the stone path in her white dress, everything else in the world completely faded away.
I forgot about Margaret.
I forgot about Gabriel.
I forgot about the impending storm.
All I saw was the woman who had reached out and pulled me out of the darkness.
When we exchanged our vows, I couldn’t stop crying. I looked out at the audience. Joseph and Martha were sitting in the front row. Martha was dabbing her eyes with a tissue, and Joseph was beaming with pride.
They were my family.
This was real.
After the ceremony, the guests moved into the massive stone reception hall for dinner and speeches. The room was breathtaking. Crystal chandeliers hung from the wooden beams, and the tables were covered in white linen, candles, and expensive floral arrangements.
I took my seat next to Chloe at the head table. The energy in the room was electric. People were laughing, drinking champagne, and celebrating.
But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan standing near the heavy oak doors at the back of the hall.
He gave me a single curt nod.
I leaned over and whispered into Chloe’s ear. “They’re here.”
Chloe’s eyes widened. She instinctively reached out and gripped my hand under the table. “Are you okay? Do you want Ryan to throw them out right now?”
“No,” I whispered back, kissing her cheek. “Just watch.”
The master of ceremonies, a charismatic guy with a deep voice, tapped his microphone, signaling for the room to quiet down. The soft acoustic background music faded out.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the MC announced, his voice echoing through the massive hall, “before we get to the dinner service, we have some very special introductions to make. If I could have your attention on the center stage.”
I stood up, brushing a hand down my suit jacket, and walked over to the center stage. I took the microphone from the MC. I looked out over the sea of faces. Hundreds of my colleagues, friends, and the Morrison family were watching me with warm, expectant smiles. Sitting at table number one, right near the front, was Arthur, the billionaire CEO of the tech firm my agency represented. He raised his glass to me.
Then I looked all the way to the back of the room.
The heavy oak doors were pushed slightly open. Standing in the shadows, waiting for their moment, were Margaret, Charles, and Gabriel.
They were practically vibrating with angry energy. They were waiting for me to falter. They were waiting for me to acknowledge them, to apologize for not inviting them, to beg for their forgiveness in front of my wealthy friends.
I brought the microphone to my lips.
“Thank you all for being here today,” I said, my voice steady and loud. “This day is about love. But more importantly, this day is about family. And for a very long time, I did not know what that word actually meant.”
I saw Margaret take a step forward out of the shadows, a smug look crossing her face.