Claire Bennett refused to trade herself for another hostage. She and Gabriel Bennett returned to an empty cathedral after the wedding guests had gone before midnight, using the key from the ambush to enter the archive their enemy had tried to keep buried.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall tracking Claire Bennett's life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every loss with patient precision. At the center, a line connected her to Gabriel Bennett, then continued toward a sealed record neither of them had seen.
Gabriel Bennett reached it first. The evidence proved the truth neither of them was ready to trust: The missing groom fled because he learned Claire—not either brother—was the true heir to Bennett Holdings. It also showed why he had been tied to the conspiracy long before he met Claire Bennett.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Gabriel Bennett reached for his weapon, but Claire Bennett stopped him. Running had brought her here. This time she would make the person hunting them speak.
The archive door opened. The intruder removed a hood, and Claire Bennett's breath caught. The face belonged to someone whose funeral she had attended—and the hostage video had been playing from an empty room.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose: expose it and destroy Gabriel Bennett, or bury it and become the woman who betrays him.”
Claire Bennett took Gabriel Bennett's hand instead.
The stranger smiled and pressed a remote. Behind them, the archive began counting down from ten.