Chapter 2: The Woman I Thought I Knew

Noah POV:

The wedding hall was silent. Just a few hours earlier, it had been full of laughter, music, and guests waiting to celebrate the happiest day of my life. Now, the beautiful flowers looked more like they belonged at a funeral than a wedding.

I loosened my tie and stared down the aisle. Tracy was supposed to walk toward me there. She was supposed to become my wife. Instead, she had been taken away in handcuffs.

I slowly closed my eyes. "Sir?" My best man, Daniel, stood a few steps away. "The guests have all gone home."

I gave a small nod without looking at him. "Your mother is waiting for you." I let out a quiet breath. "I'll be there."

He paused for a moment before saying, "You don't have to face everyone tonight."

I shook my head. "I do." Daniel sighed softly and walked away, leaving me alone again.

The silence felt heavy. I could still hear Tracy's voice in my mind. "I didn't do it." Those words wouldn't leave me.

She hadn't looked angry or even tried to fight back. She looked scared. I ran a hand through my hair, trying to clear my thoughts. Why would she lie? Or, what if someone had framed her? "No,"

I muttered, pushing the thought away. The evidence against her was too strong. It had to mean something... didn't it?

The moment I walked into one of the hotel's private lounges, every voice went quiet. The board members looked relieved to see me, but my mother came straight over.

"You handled everything well," she said. I frowned. "Did I?"

She gave me a cold look. "You stopped her before she could destroy this family."

I looked at her in silence. "I was about to marry her." She crossed her arms. "Now you know who she really is."

I let out a slow breath. "I don't know anything anymore."

My mother didn't soften. "The police found company files in her bag." "I know."

"They also found millions of dollars in an account under her name." "I know."

 She stared at me. "Then stop defending her." I shook my head. "I'm not defending her."

"Then stop questioning yourself." I looked away because the truth was, I was questioning myself every single second.

Late that night, I sat alone in my office at Kingston Holdings. Tracy's engagement ring lay on my desk.

I picked it up and watched the diamond shine under the light. Just yesterday, I had placed that ring on her finger. She had laughed, cried, and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"I'll never take this off," she had whispered.

I closed my hand around the ring. "If all of that was a lie"

The words refused to come out. A soft knock broke the silence. "Mr. Kingston?" my assistant called. "Come in," I replied.

She placed a file on my desk. "The investigators collected everything they found."

I opened it and saw bank records, emails, transfer receipts, and security reports. Every page pointed to Tracy and made her look guilty.

But deep inside, something didn't feel right. Tracy had never cared about money.

When we first met, she insisted on paying for her own coffee. When I offered to buy her a car, she turned it down.

When I asked her to move into my penthouse before the wedding, she smiled and said, "I'd rather wait until we're husband and wife."

She had never asked me for anything, so why would she suddenly steal millions? I leaned back in my chair, unable to make sense of it all.

The next morning, my secretary called. "Miss Carter is here." My heart skipped a beat. "What?" I asked.

"She says she only needs five minutes." I stared at my office door before finally saying, "Send her in."

The door opened slowly, and Tracy walked inside. She was still wearing the wedding dress from yesterday.

It was wrinkled and stained. Her veil was gone, dark circles surrounded her swollen eyes, and she looked tired and completely broken.

She stopped a few steps away, and neither of us spoke. At last, she whispered, "Hi." That single word hurt more than I expected.

I forced myself to stay calm. "Why are you here?" She looked at me with tearful eyes.

"I couldn't leave things like this. I need you to believe me." I looked away.

"The evidence says something different." She shook her head.

"The evidence is fake. I didn't betray you." I frowned.

"I saw the reports." Her voice cracked. "I didn't do it.

I swear on everything I love." I questioned her about the money, the company files, and the signatures, but she had only one answer. She didn't know about the money, she had never seen the files, and the signatures were fake.

I let out a bitter laugh. "How convenient." Tears rolled down her face.

"You know me." I looked at her quietly. "I thought I did."

She whispered, "I would never hurt you." I asked again, "Then why does every piece of evidence point to you?" She cried out, "I don't know!"

The silence between us felt endless. Tracy wiped away her tears before speaking softly. "I kept waiting for you to ask if I was okay."

Her words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. Then she gave me a sad smile. "But you already decided I was guilty." I answered, "I decided because of the facts."

She slowly shook her head. "No. You decided because you were afraid. If you had trusted me even a little, you would have stood beside me yesterday."

I couldn't reply because she was right. I hadn't stood by her, not even once.

She reached into her purse, took off her engagement ring, and gently placed it on my desk beside mine.

"I loved you with all my heart," she said quietly. My chest felt tight. "I still do. But love cannot survive without trust."

She turned and walked toward the door. "Tracy" I called. She stopped, waiting for one moment, I almost asked her to stay. Almost, but I said nothing. She gave a small, sad nod. "Goodbye, Noah."

The door closed behind her, and my office suddenly felt cold. I stared at the two rings lying side by side on my desk. For the first time in my life, winning felt exactly like losing.

Hours later, I still couldn't stop thinking about Tracy, so I opened the hotel's security archive.

Maybe I wanted to punish myself, or maybe I was looking for proof that I had made the right choice. The video from the bridal suite appeared on my screen. I watched Tracy walk into the room, then saw the makeup artists leaving.

A few moments later, a hotel worker wearing a maintenance uniform entered. He stayed for less than ten seconds before bending down near Tracy's handbag. My heartbeat grew faster.

"What are you doing?" I whispered as I leaned closer to the screen, I watched him slip a flash drive into her bag, my eyes went wide. "No"

I quickly reached for the keyboard to zoom in on his face, but the screen suddenly flickered. ACCESS DENIED. The video vanished, and a red warning appeared across the monitor. FILE PERMANENTLY DELETED.

Someone had erased the only proof that could clear Tracy's name and whoever did it had the power to access the company's system from the inside.