Chapter 1 - THE NAME ERASED FROM THE INVITATION
Six weeks before his wedding, Lucas Moreno found a ninth place card beneath the sealed invitations.
It was written in his late mother’s hand.
Mia Moreno—front pew, beside family.
Lucas knew no Mia Moreno. His parents had died eight years earlier, and he had no living siblings. His fiancée, Valeria Cross, assumed the card had been stored with old stationery.
“Your mother planned a hundred dinners,” she said. “It could be anybody.”
Mr. Jonathan Carter, the silver-haired family lawyer overseeing their marriage documents, reacted differently. He took the card without asking.
“This should not exist.”
Lucas watched him slide it into a leather folder. “You recognize the name?”
“I recognize your mother’s habit of making sentimental lists.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Carter returned the card, smiling as if patience were a professional courtesy. He explained that the Moreno estate once supported several children through private scholarships. Mia might have been one of them.
That evening, Lucas searched the family foundation archives. Every file containing the name Mia had been deleted under an order authorized by Carter nine years earlier.
The deletion code identified the subject as M.M., dependent minor.
Lucas printed the audit trail. Before he could open the archived court reference, his account lost access.
Valeria entered his study carrying champagne and found him staring at the error message.
“Promise me you won’t let old ghosts ruin our wedding,” she said.
Her tone was gentle. Her hand shook badly enough to spill wine over the invitation list.
May you like
Under the red stain, another line appeared in his mother’s faded ink:
If Carter brings the marriage papers, find the child first.
