Chapter 9
Sophia asked one question that changed the room.
“Has Ethan Vance attempted to touch the device?”
Ethan froze.
He had been moving his hand toward the laptop.
Slowly.
Almost casually.
As if reaching for a misplaced glass.
Liam saw it and stepped between him and the bed.
“Yes,” Liam said.
Ethan snapped his hand back.
“I was doing no such thing.”
Audrey looked at his hand.
Then at the laptop.
Then at him.
She did not need to argue.
The silence did it for her.
Sophia’s voice remained calm.
“Do not allow him access. I am logging that.”
Ethan’s face drained further.
Logging.
Such a small word.
Such a terrifying one for a man who relied on conversations disappearing after they ended.
He turned toward Audrey’s mother.
“Tell them this is absurd.”
She looked at him.
Audrey held her breath.
Her mother’s lips trembled.
“I don’t know what this is.”
It was not enough.
But it was not obedience.
And for Ethan, that was disaster.
Downstairs, the music finally stopped.
Footsteps moved in the hall.
Wedding staff whispering.
A coordinator asking whether the ceremony should be delayed.
Liam did not take his eyes off Ethan.
Audrey picked up the external drive beside the laptop and held it in both hands.
Ethan saw it.
His expression changed again.
Not just fear now.
Recognition.
“There are copies,” Audrey said.
He stared at her.
She continued, voice barely above a whisper.
“There were always copies.”
Ethan’s grip tightened around the champagne glass until his knuckles went white.
Liam’s phone remained connected.
Sophia said, “Audrey, do not give him anything.”
Audrey looked at Ethan.
May you like
“I’m not.”
Read the full story 👉 Ethan reached for the laptop and learned the worst thing possible: Audrey had preserved copies long before the wedding.
