Chapter 2 - The Cash on the Floor
The cash lay scattered across the wedding suite like something shameful.
Bundles had fallen near Travis’s bare feet.
The truck keys rested on the edge of the bed.
The thick envelope remained clenched in his hand, half-torn open, hiding the old photograph inside.
Travis could not stop staring at Eleanor’s shoulder.
The strap covered the mark now, but he had seen it.
A dark round birthmark with an uneven edge.
The same mark he remembered from the only photograph he had of his mother before she vanished from his life.
He had been told many things about that woman.
That she was gone.
That she had made choices no one could explain.
That asking questions hurt people who had already suffered enough.
Now his new bride stood in front of him, sobbing without sound, wearing the same mark on her shoulder.
“Why did you call me that?” he asked.
Eleanor’s lips trembled.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
She looked toward the door.
Outside, security shadows paused.
Travis saw her fear.
It was not fear of him.
It was fear of time running out.
He lifted the envelope.
“What is this?”
Eleanor took one shaky step forward.
“Please don’t pull the photograph out yet.”
“Why?”
“Because once you see it, you won’t hear anything I say after.”
His jaw locked.
“That sounds like a reason to see it.”
Her face twisted with guilt.
“No. It’s a reason to let me speak first.”
Travis looked at the scattered cash.
“You tried to pay me before telling me.”
“I tried to protect you.”
His laugh came out broken.
“With a million dollars and a truck?”
Eleanor flinched.
The bedroom handle made a tiny metallic sound, then stopped.
Both of them turned toward the door.
No one entered.
Travis lowered his voice.
“Who’s outside?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled with fresh panic.
“People who think this ends tonight if you leave quietly.”
The words hit him harder than the money.
This had not been a strange gift.
It had been an exit package.
A bribe.
A warning disguised as generosity.
Travis looked back at the envelope.
May you like
The hidden photograph waited between his fingers like a loaded confession.
Read Chapter 3 👉 Because Eleanor feared the photograph, but she feared the people outside the door even more.
