The Bride's Return

Death Trap

Emily stepped closer, lowering her voice into something dangerously cold. “Listen to me carefully, Ashley. This family’s reputation will not collapse because of your carelessness. You will apologize publicly and take responsibility before this situation becomes uncontrollable.”

Ashley could barely process the words. "Take responsibility?" “For something I didn’t do?”

Emily’s eyes sharpened. “Do you think anyone here will believe you over me?”

The question silenced her immediately. Because deep down…Ashley already knew the answer.

Nobody would choose her. Not Francis her own husband, not Cynthia her sister, not even the family that raised her.

Francis finally stepped forward quietly. “Mrs. Bennett, maybe this isn’t the right time.”

Emily turned toward him instantly. “Then when is the right time? When the press destroys us tomorrow morning?”

Ashley looked at Francis desperately, still hoping for something human from him. “Tell her,” she whispered. “Tell her I wasn’t involved.”

Francis hesitated. That hesitation destroyed the last piece of her heart.

Cynthia stepped beside Emily smoothly, linking her arm through her mother’s like a loyal daughter standing beside family. “Mother’s right,” Cynthia said softly. “Someone has to calm the situation before it spreads further.”

Ashley looked at her slowly “You’re helping them blame me?”

Cynthia’s expression remained calm. “Ashley, emotions won’t solve anything right now.”

Ashley suddenly understood something horrifying. They had already decided this before tonight. She was already setup to take the blame for the forged paintings.

The public humiliation, the divorce papers, everything had been prepared in advance and she didn't have the slightest idea what she had walked into.

The ballroom doors suddenly opened wider as reporters flooded toward the hallway after hearing the commotion. Camera flashes exploded instantly.

“There’s Ashley Bennett!”

“Miss Bennett, did you forge the paintings yourself?”

“Did your family know about the fraud?”

“Is it true your husband ended the marriage tonight?”

Ashley froze under the overwhelming noise. The humiliation became physical like something heavy crushing against her ribs until breathing hurt.

Emily immediately stepped forward with practiced elegance, placing a protective arm around Cynthia while completely leaving Ashley alone before the cameras.

“My family is deeply saddened by tonight’s misunderstanding,” Emily announced gracefully. “Ashley has struggled emotionally for years, and unfortunately, some poor decisions were made regarding the artwork restoration process.”

Ashley looked at her in complete disbelief, Her supposed mother, Emily wasn’t defending her. She was sacrificing her publicly. Reporters immediately turned their cameras toward Ashley again.

“Miss Ashley, do you admit responsibility?”

“Did you fake the paintings alone?”

“Ashley, what about the divorce rumors?”

Ashley opened her mouth, but no words came out. Francis stood near the back now beside Cynthia not beside her and somehow that hurt more than everything else combined.

Daniel Hart appeared near the staircase again, watching the entire disaster unfold with unreadable eyes. Unlike the others, he wasn’t looking at Ashley with judgment or amusement.

He was watching her like he understood exactly what was happening–that almost made her cry harder.

Emily glanced back sharply at Ashley. “Say something.”

Ashley finally looked at her family one last time. Her mother, her sister, her husband–not one of them looked sorry. She felt something inside her completely collapse. Without another word, she turned and ran.

“Ashley!” Emily shouted furiously behind her.

But she kept running through the flashing cameras, through the pouring rain outside the hotel entrance, through the noise and humiliation and betrayal threatening to swallow her alive.

Rain soaked through her dress instantly as she stumbled toward the parking lot with tears streaming uncontrollably down her face. Her hands shook so violently she nearly dropped the car keys twice before finally unlocking the door.

The moment she got inside the car, the silence broke her completely. She gripped the steering wheel and burst into tears so painful she could barely breathe through them. Every cruel moment from the night replayed endlessly in her head.

Francis saying he loved Cynthia, the divorce papers already signed, Emily blaming her publicly, the cameras, the humiliation.

Ashley pressed both hands against her mouth, trying desperately to stop crying, but the sobs only became worse.

“What did I do so wrong?” she whispered in tears brokenly into the empty car.

Hot tears wear burning down her face faster than she could wipe them away. Her breathing came unevenly while Francis’s words repeated inside her head over and over again like a punishment she could not escape.

“You’re the one I love."

Even now, Ashley still could not fully understand how everything had collapsed so quickly. Just hours ago, she had been standing in her studio painting a portrait of the people she called family. She had worried whether Emily would criticize her artwork again.

She was worried whether Francis would smile at her tonight now none of those things mattered anymore because the truth was worse than her worst fear.

She had never been loved inside that family.

Not truly. Ashley tightened her trembling hands around the steering wheel as another painful sob escaped her chest. Her vision blurred again from tears while rainwater crashed violently against the windshield.

The divorce papers still rested on the passenger seat beside her.

Prepared already, signed already by her husband. Francis had planned everything before tonight even started.

Ashley suddenly remembered the look on Cynthia’s face in the hallway. Calm, beautiful, completely unashamed while standing beside the man Ashley loved–that hurt her the most.

Ashley pressed harder against the accelerator unconsciously as humiliation, heartbreak, and anger twisted together painfully inside her chest. Her body felt too heavy for her own skin–every breath hurt.

The reporters, the cameras. Emily publicly blamed her for the fraud and her father watched, saying absolutely nothing.

Ashley laughed weakly through tears even strangers at the auction looked more uncomfortable than her own family did.

Lightning flashed across the road ahead. Ashley barely noticed the bright headlights speeding toward the intersection until it was too late.

A car appeared suddenly from the opposite direction. Everything happened too fast. A deafening horn, blinding lights.

Ashley gasped sharply and jerked the steering wheel instinctively.

Then—CRASH!