Part 6. The Cemetery Bargain
On the morning of the wedding, Mara went to her father’s grave.
No one had ever told her where he was buried.
She had found it through formal records.
His headstone called him a beloved husband.
Not a father.
Mara knelt in the wet grass.
“I waited for you to stop her,” she said.
The stone gave no answer.
Then Celia appeared through the fog, wearing a robe beneath her coat and clutching an old envelope.
Their father had written Mara a letter before he died.
Celia had found it after the funeral.
Three years earlier.
She had kept it hidden.
And now she tried to trade it for Mara’s signature.
Mara saw the full truth.
Half the river acreage and a large share of Ellison Development had been left to her.
Celia had borrowed against assets she did not fully own.
She had lied to Rowan about her inheritance.
And Helena had planned to use the wedding to pressure Mara into surrendering everything.
Celia held out the letter.
“Sign the waiver first.”
Mara took the envelope from her hand.
“It is addressed to me.”
Celia panicked.
“You can’t take that without signing.”
Mara placed the letter inside her coat.
Then she walked away.
Behind her, Celia called her name.
Mara did not turn around.
The wedding was no longer just a ceremony.
It was a fuse.
And it had already been lit.
Part 7. The Father’s Letter
Mara read the letter in her car.
Her father apologized for the night Helena threw her out.
But his excuse wounded more than it healed.
He wrote that he had chosen to protect Celia because Celia seemed easier to protect.
