Chapter 211: Did he invite you?

Elisa froze, the blood draining from her face. She took an involuntary step backward, her fingers gripping the lace of her skirt, her heart beating erratically in her chest.

"Dad... Mom... what are you two... how did you even get in here?" Elisa stammered, her voice shaking as old, familiar terror spiked alongside sheer confusion. Ridge's security was impenetrable. No one….absolutely no one…..gets past the gates without his direct authorization. "Did Ridge... did he invite you?"

Olga didn't answer with words. Before Elisa could process another thought, her mother rushed forward across the room with a choked sob, throwing her arms around Elisa's neck in a desperate, suffocating embrace.

"Oh, my baby girl..." Olga wept openly, her hot tears soaking directly into the fine silk bodice of Elisa's wedding gown, clinging to her as if she were still drowning in the river from months ago. "My sweet, beautiful girl... look at you."

Elisa stood paralyzed for a second, her arms hovering awkwardly in the air. But the sheer warmth of her mother's embrace, the familiar scent of her perfume, broke something deep inside her chest. The walls she had built up cracked, and she couldn't hold it back anymore. A strangled sob escaped her lips, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her mother, burying her face in Olga's shoulder as heavy, hot tears flooded her eyes, it was at this moment she realized she missed her mother a great deal. After being torn apart for seven years.

"Mom... Mom, I've missed you so much," Elisa choked out, her entire body trembling.

The emotional breakdown, however, instantly triggered a minor crisis for the wedding preparations.

From the corner of the room, the professional makeup artist let out a dramatic, panicked gasp, dropping her powder brush onto the floor. "Oh, no! No, no, no! The mascara! The foundation! Mrs. Lockhart, please, do not cry! We spent forty minutes setting that waterproof look, it's going to streak! We don't want the bride being late to her own wedding now,do we?”

Olga pulled back slightly, laughing through her own tears as she grabbed a tissue from the vanity table and frantically dabbed at Elisa's eyes, trying to salvage the bride's face before the ceremony started. "Hush, you silly girl, let her cry! She's seeing her mother on her wedding day!"

Through the blur of tears, Elisa looked past her mother toward the doorway.

Theodore Lee was standing there with his hands clasped behind his back. He wasn't crying, but his jaw was tight, and his eyes carried a heavy, troubled weight that Elisa knew all too well. He stepped slowly into the room, closing the door behind him to ensure privacy.

"It's good to see you looking healthy, Elisa," Theodore said, his voice deep and steady, though it lacked its usual cold authority. He walked closer, stopping a few feet away from her. "You have your color back. You look like a true Lee woman again."

Elisa wiped a stray tear from her cheek, her breathing heavy as she looked at her father. "Dad... how are you here? Who let you in?  Ridge wouldn't like you being here, not surely after what you pulled the last time you were here.”

Theodore let out a dry, humorless chuckle, shaking his head. "Ridge Lockhart  actually pretended to be a decent man by inviting us formally to your wedding. I'm not sure what he's trying to pull yet but to think he thinks his gates can keep out the world. He must have underestimated the power of a father who wants to talk sense into his only daughter before she makes a permanent mistake."

Elisa’s heart skipped a beat, a cold knot forming in her stomach. "A mistake?"

"Elisa, listen to me," Theodore urged, taking another step closer, his expression earnest and pleading. He reached out, gently taking her gloved hands in his. "Are you entirely sure about this? Are you sure you want to chain yourself to the Lockharts for the rest of your life?"

Elisa stared at him in sheer disbelief, pulling her hands back slightly. "Dad, what are you talking about? I love him. He is my husband, and today we are making it official in front of our family."

"Family?" Theodore scoffed softly, shaking his head with a bitter edge. "Elisa, look around you! You are hiding in a fortress surrounded by armed guards and corporate cronies. Ridge Lockhart does not know how to love; he only knows how to conquer and possess. He took you because you were a prize, because you broke his rules and survived."

Theodore leaned in closer, his voice dropping into an urgent, persuasive whisper. "You don't have to live in this cage, sweetheart. There is still life for you at the Lee estate. The throne is still yours. The crown as the true corporate heiress is waiting patiently for you to wear it. You can walk out of these doors right now, come back home where you belong, and rule the business world with your own name, instead of living in the terrifying shadow of a man like Ridge."

Elisa stood frozen in the center of the bridal suite, the white silk of her gown pooling around her feet like water.

It had always been this,  having to be reminded she was an heiress, the same life she had abandoned seven years ago to save the Lockhart’s heir. Who at the time she didn't even know was a child of the billionaire Ridge.

Just minutes ago, she had felt invincible. The doubts planted by the masked stranger had been washed away by the beauty of the estate and Ridge’s undeniable devotion. But now, hearing her father—the very man who had once treated her like a pawn—plead with her to run back to the old life, a cold, shivering wave of doubt rushed back over her.

Was her father just being manipulative, as always? Or was there a kernel of truth in his warning? Was she walking away from her own identity to become just another trophy in the Lockhart collection?