The Dead Sister Returned to Stop the Wedding

CHAPTER 2 - The Sister Who Wanted Everything

Elena and Isabella had been identical in appearance but different in almost every other way.

Elena was patient and disciplined. Isabella wanted admiration without responsibility.

Their father, Arthur Bellamy, built a respected hotel company and expected both daughters to work inside it.

Elena began at the reception desk.

Isabella spent company money on parties, vacations, and unsuitable investments.

When Arthur died, his will divided the estate equally but gave Elena the deciding vote over the company.

Isabella never forgave him.

Daniel Ashford entered Elena's life two years later. Their engagement was supposed to unite two hotel families, but their relationship was not merely a business arrangement.

They loved each other.

Daniel's mother did not approve.

Charlotte wanted complete control over the merged companies. Elena questioned her financial decisions and refused to dismiss older employees whose pensions Charlotte considered too expensive.

Isabella offered Charlotte a deal.

If Elena disappeared, Isabella would inherit her sister's shares and marry Daniel. In return, Charlotte would control the merger.

Neither woman expected Elena and Daniel to marry secretly before the public ceremony.

Elena had kept the certificate in her attorney's office.

On the night of the fire, Isabella invited Elena to the lakeside estate, claiming she wanted to repair their relationship.

Martha was working upstairs.

Elena smelled smoke shortly after drinking the wine Isabella poured for her. The wine had been drugged.

She stumbled toward the front door and found it locked from the outside.

Flames spread through the hall.

Martha tried to help her, but part of the ceiling collapsed between them.

Elena escaped through an old cellar passage her father showed her as a child. A fisherman found her unconscious near the lake.

She remained in a medically induced coma for weeks.

Because she carried no identification and severe swelling altered her appearance, the hospital registered her as an unknown patient.

When Elena finally remembered her name, she called Daniel's family.

Charlotte answered.

She told Elena that Daniel knew she had survived but wanted nothing to do with her. She claimed investigators believed Elena had stolen company money before causing the fire.

"If you return," Charlotte warned, "you will go directly to prison."

Elena was injured, confused, and terrified.

For months, she believed Daniel had abandoned her.

Then Rose Bennett, a retired Bellamy employee, recognized Elena in a rehabilitation center.

Rose did not merely believe her.

She brought evidence.

Martha had installed a private security camera after money began disappearing from the estate. The camera uploaded recordings to a remote account Isabella never discovered.

One video showed Isabella locking the door.

Another showed Charlotte's driver removing fuel containers from his car.

Rose also found Elena's unopened letters inside Charlotte's private office.

Charlotte had intercepted every attempt Elena made to contact Daniel.

The final recording captured Isabella discussing the fire.

But it also revealed something Elena had not known.

Isabella had not acted only for money.

She had been secretly involved with Daniel before Elena's wedding.