Chapter 3 - THE CIVIL MARRIAGE
Simone married Julian five months earlier in a courthouse three cities away.
No photographers.
No guests except Julian’s sister Elena and Simone’s college friend Maya.
They had been together for three years.
Quietly.
Not secretly at first.
Then Julian became chairman after his father’s stroke.
Suddenly every dinner invitation became networking.
Every photograph became speculation.
Every Bellamy relative began asking what Julian could do for them.
Simone hated it.
So did Julian.
When he proposed, she said:
“I want to marry you before everyone else turns it into a transaction.”
They did.
The plan was simple.
Civil marriage now.
Public celebration later.
After the governance vote.
After Julian finished separating family ownership from executive control.
After Simone completed the launch of her nonprofit arts program without anyone claiming Julian bought it for her.
Carmen learned because Simone needed access to one Bellamy family record for the marriage license.
She swore she would keep it private.
Apparently she had kept the fact from Deline.
But shared pieces.
Enough to make a lie believable.
Deline knew:
Julian was unavailable publicly.
He had private legal meetings.
He was delaying public relationship announcements.
He had a family ring design.
He had upcoming travel.
All true.
Then someone rearranged those truths around Deline.
The next day, Simone sat with Julian and attorney Daniel Cho in a private hotel conference room.
Daniel placed a packet on the table.
“Celia Ward is real.”
Simone blinked.
“I know.”
“She also has no current wedding-planning contract with the Bellamy family.”
“What?”
The hotel contract listed:
Bellamy Family Foundation.
Not Deline personally.
Payment authorization:
Carmen Bellamy.
Simone stared.
The venue had been booked as a “foundation winter gala.”
No marriage ceremony in the contract.
No officiant.
No wedding license.
No groom.
The ballroom was decorated like a wedding because Carmen approved the décor package.
Deline’s bridal gown, photographer, flowers, cake—all separate personal vendors.
Funded partly by Deline.
Partly by Carmen.
But the venue itself?
A gala.
Julian said:
“So the wedding never legally existed.”
Daniel nodded.
“Not outside Deline’s expectations.”
Simone felt sick.
Someone had allowed a twenty-seven-year-old woman to arrive in a bridal gown to a reception for a marriage nobody else had formally booked.
Then Daniel opened another folder.
Celia’s email account had been compromised six months earlier.
Not hacked in some cinematic sense.
Her old assistant still had access to a shared event-planning inbox.
That assistant now worked for Carmen.
The name:
Lydia Bellamy.
May you like
Simone’s cousin.
Carmen’s daughter.
