Chapter 2 - THE GROOM WHO KNEW BEFORE THE VOWS.
Mason admitted the recording was real but claimed Blair told him the deed was forged.
Riley removed the wedding contract. It pledged Sterling Manor as Blair’s collateral for a merger between the Sterling and Mercer companies. Mason would gain temporary voting control after the ceremony.
“You were borrowing against property neither family fully owns,” Riley said.
Blair laughed. “People like you do not own estates. You serve in them.”
Security produced Riley’s removal order, signed by Blair. It called Riley an unstable former employee likely to create a scene.
Riley had never worked for Blair. She was a legal researcher for a housing nonprofit.
The label came from a Sterling file created when Riley was sixteen and living in staff housing:
Debt. Public school. No influential relatives. Low credibility.
Blair had not investigated a threat. She had calculated how easily a poor woman could be disbelieved.
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Wright turned the page.
The removal order had also been approved by Mason’s mother, Senator Victoria Mercer, seated in the front row.
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