Chapter Six: The Name That Shouldn't Be There
1543 Words
I stopped crying on the second night not because the pain was gone,it wasn't If anything, it felt worse every time I thought about the wedding, my chest tightened.
Remembering those photos made me feel sick all over again,the humiliation, betrayal, and whispers were impossible to escape but sometime between midnight and three in the morning, while staring at the stained ceiling of my hotel room, I realized something important. Crying wasn't going to help me.
It wouldn't reveal who had done this, and it certainly wasn't going to give me my life back,if I wanted answers, I had to go find them myself.
The anonymous envelope was still sitting open on the desk, the photos spread out beside it,I couldn't look at them for long anymore after two days of staring, trying to find something I'd missed, they just hurt.
I looked away, turning my attention back to the wedding guest list instead. I had printed it from the website two days ago, just before someone took the entire page down,whoever had done it had covered their tracks well, just not well enough to beat a printed copy and mine was sitting right in front of me.
Three hundred and twenty-five names filled six pages. I had printed them using the cheap hotel printer down the hall, and the pages didn't look perfect.
Earlier that evening, I'd bought a red pen from the front desk for fifty dollars, a week ago, spending that kind of money wouldn't have mattered to me but now, I had to think about every dollar before I spent it.
I started at the top,family first. I crossed out every Grayson and Crane relative I recognized from the endless meetings before the wedding.
Then I turned my attention to the business associates. My father had gone over so many documents with me when the marriage arrangement was announced that I recognized most of the names immediately, after that came photographers, reporters, venue staff, and everyone else whose presence made sense. One by one, I ruled them out.
When I finally reached the end of the list, only eleven names remained,eleven people I couldn't explain,my heart started to race. Maybe it meant nothing,or maybe it was the first real lead I'd found since this nightmare began.
I checked them one by one,eight were easy to identify through a quick search, a professional profile, or a family connection while one was listed as a plus-one another was a name I vaguely remembered seeing in a Crane board document,then I reached the last name and everything inside me went still.
I stared at it and I saw three words which was a company name.
At first sight, it looked completely ordinary, professional, and forgettable,the kind of name most people would read and immediately move past but something about it felt wrong.
I couldn't explain it at first, but I used to work in a contract administration before the arranged marriage turned my life upside down.
For two years, I had reviewed contracts and business documents almost every day. After seeing hundreds of corporate entities, you start to notice patterns you learn what legitimate businesses look like, and more importantly, you learn what fake ones look like.
This one felt fake but not obviously fake, just... empty. Like it existed only because someone wanted a placeholder,I circled the name once, then again, and again by the third circle, the pen was almost tearing through the paper, my hands trembled, not because I was scared, but because deep down, I knew I'd found something important, I just didn't know what it meant yet.
It was too late to call most people, but I picked up my phone anyway. Professor Dana Marsh had been my favorite lecturer during my second year of university she taught forensic accounting, which most students hated, but I loved it.
While everyone else complained about spreadsheets and financial records, I found myself fascinated by the stories hidden inside numbers,so one-day after a brutal exam, she told me I thought like an investigator, I had laughed then but now I wasn’t laughing.
She answered on the third ring. "Serenity."
There was no surprise in her voice,some people hated late-night phone calls, but Dana wasn't one of them. "I saw the news," she said quietly. "I've been waiting for you to reach out."
"I found something," I said. "I need to know if you recognize a company name.
The line went quiet for a moment. I could hear movement on the other end, as if she'd just sat up in bed. "Go ahead,"
I looked down at the paper one more time before reading it out,for a few seconds, all I could hear was my own breathing, my fingers tightened around the receiver.
“Dana?”
"Where did you see that name?" Something in her tone had changed, she didn't sound shocked,she sounded careful, like she was thinking very hard about what to say next. "On the wedding guest list," I replied. "It's listed as a corporate attendee, but I can't find anything real about it."
Silence followed, lasting long enough for my stomach to knot when she finally spoke, her voice was lower. "I can't talk about this on the phone."
My head jumped,the words themselves weren't the problem it was the way she said them,Dana wasn't someone who get scared easily. If she was refusing to discuss it over the line, there was a major reason maybe she knew something, I was sure of it.
"Can we meet tomorrow?" I asked.
"Yes." She didn't hesitate. "The diner on Clement Street,the one with the terrible coffee and the good eggs. Eight o'clock."
Then she paused, and the seriousness in her voice made me sit up straighter. "Serenity, don't tell anyone you have that list, don't photograph it, don't email it, and don't mention it to anyone until we've spoken."
"Okay."
"I mean anyone."
A chill ran through me. "I understand," after some seconds, the line went dead, i slowly lowered the phone and stared at the wall, the room suddenly felt smaller.
This wasn't Sloane, at least not by herself, I knew my sister, I had spent twenty-seven years watching her, arguing with her, and growing up with her. I knew how she reacted when she was jealous or angry, and I knew what she was capable of.
Sloane could be impulsive and manipulative, but this felt different and bigger. It was more organized and deliberate,the corporate title kept circling through my mind.
A shell company,something created to hide whoever was really behind it people didn't build things like that on a whim, they built them because they had something serious to conceal someone with money, someone patient, someone who had planned this long before the wedding.
The realization settled heavily in my chest,whoever was behind this hadn't acted overnight, they'd been preparing for a long time, maybe longer than I even knew the marriage was happening.
I pushed back my chair and walked into the bathroom,the light flickered on above the mirror, harsh and unforgiving,I stared at my reflection,i looked exhausted, my eyes swollen from crying, and the dark circles beneath them seemed deeper than they had a few days ago.
I looked like someone who had lost everything, but I didn't look broken,for some reason, that mattered, maybe because everyone expected me to be, or maybe because part of me expected it too.
But despite everything, I was still standing and I wasn't broken or maybe not yet, I returned to the desk and picked up the guest list. I folded it carefully after a moment, I slid the folded papers inside my bra, pressing them flat against my ribs It was the safest place I could think of,no one could take it without getting past me first.
I switched off the bathroom light and stood in the darkness and then my phone lit up. The sudden glow made me freeze,an unknown number appeared, not the same one from before, but a completely different one.
It rang for some seconds then the screen cast a pale light across the room,I watched it, but I didn't answer because something felt wrong, whoever was calling at two in the morning either had terrible timing, or they knew I was awake.
The second possibility sent a cold shiver down my spine. If they knew I was awake, then they were paying attention and if they were paying attention, they might know exactly what I'd been doing all night, the guest list, the red pen, the company name, the questions.
For the first time in days, a small smile touched my lips. Good,Let them worry,they should be worried, I sat back down and waited for morning, the folded document resting against my heartbeat.
Eight hours,just eight more hours until I could sit beside Dana Marsh and find out why a single company name had made her so nervous then the phone stopped ringing, and the screen went dark, but I still couldn't take my eyes off it.
Someone paid for this, I thought someone wanted my life destroyed maybe sooner or later, I was going to find out who, I just had to make it to eight o'clock.
- Writer
