Chapter 2 - THE WEDDING THAT NEVER HAPPENED
No one spoke for several seconds.
Ethan reached for the card.
The officer pulled it away.
“This is evidence.”
“My mother didn’t write that,” Ethan said.
Claire studied his face.
Even after the dress, the staged fall, the sabotaged camera, and the technician’s confession, he was still searching for another explanation.
Vivian stepped closer to her son.
“Ethan, look at me.”
He did.
“I would never destroy your wedding.”
Claire laughed once.
The sound was quiet and empty.
“You destroyed my dress while I begged you to stop.”
Vivian turned toward her.
“You have no proof of that.”
“There was an image on the monitor.”
“A frozen image proves nothing.”
“It proves the gown was untouched while you were standing beside it.”
Vivian’s expression hardened.
“Perhaps you destroyed it afterward.”
Luke finally spoke.
“She didn’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
He unlocked his phone.
“I arrived outside the suite before Ethan.”
“I heard Claire asking Vivian to stop.”
Ethan stared at his best man.
“You heard them?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come in?”
“I was on a call with the officiant.”
Luke’s jaw tightened.
“By the time I ended it, your mother was already on the floor.”
“Did you record anything?” Natalie asked.
Luke hesitated.
“My phone records calls for my legal files.”
Ethan stepped toward him.
“You have audio?”
“I might.”
Vivian’s composure fractured.
“That recording is illegal.”
Luke looked at her.
“That depends on who was speaking and where the phone was located.”
The officers asked Luke to preserve the device.
Claire turned toward the vanity.
Her reflection looked like a stranger’s.
Her lip was swollen.
The gown hung in ribbons from her body.
Her mother’s veil remained clenched in her hand.
Three hundred guests were waiting downstairs beneath white roses and crystal chandeliers.
The orchestra was probably still playing.
The cake was probably still untouched.
Claire picked up the suite telephone.
Ethan moved closer.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending this before your mother finds another person to frame.”
She called the ballroom manager.
“This is Claire Whitman.”
Her voice trembled once.
“The ceremony is canceled.”
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“Claire, don’t do this.”
She covered the receiver.
“You already did.”
Vivian reached for Ethan’s arm.
“We should leave.”
The lead officer blocked her path.
“No one is leaving until statements are taken.”
A second officer examined the money and instruction card.
“There’s something beneath the bills.”
He removed a small brass key.
Natalie recognized it.
“That opens the private records office.”
Vivian looked toward the service corridor.
Claire saw the fear return to her eyes.
Natalie slowly raised her gaze.
“The records office contains the mirrored surveillance server.”
Owen shook his head.
“I was never told about a second server.”
Vivian whispered something under her breath.
Luke heard it.
May you like
So did Claire.
“You were supposed to destroy both.”
