Amanda turned to Jacob.
“Tell them you authorized it.”
Jacob stood perfectly still.
Her eyes sharpened. “Tell them.”
He looked at Judith’s lavender dress, at the purse she had been forced to clutch all evening, and then at the champagne glass glittering across the floor.
“I didn’t,” he said.
Amanda slapped him.
The sound cracked through the ballroom.
A collective breath rose from the guests.
Jacob’s head turned with the force of it. He lifted one hand to his cheek, not touching the red mark, and looked back at her with an expression that was not anger.
It was recognition.
Amanda had not revealed herself by shouting at Judith.
She had revealed herself by striking the man she claimed to love.
The investigators stepped between them.
Amanda struggled once, then stopped when Daniel placed a folder on the table.
“I believe you should also know,” he said, “that the company account contains payments from the wedding budget to three private accounts controlled by Amanda Rusk.”
Jacob stared at him.
Daniel opened the folder. “Your mother paid every vendor. The additional funds came from the vineyard’s operating account. Amanda moved them through a consulting company registered to her cousin.”
The bride’s veil brushed the marble as she backed away.
“No,” she whispered.
Martin swallowed. “She told me the money was authorized.”
“You signed the invoices,” Daniel said.
“I was afraid.”
“You were greedy,” Judith said quietly.
Martin closed his eyes.
That single sentence seemed to break whatever defense he had left. He pulled a key ring from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“I have the safe key,” he said. “The original contracts are inside. She told me to destroy them after tonight.”
Amanda lunged toward him, but one of the investigators caught her arm.
Her bouquet fell.
White roses scattered over the floor beside the broken glass.
