The Camera in the Hall
Chapter 08 - The Camera in the Hall
Lily did not answer right away.
She looked at Ethan, at the man she loved, standing between the mother who raised him and the bride she had tried to erase. He looked devastated, but he did not look uncertain. That mattered.
Before Lily could speak, one of the security guards hurried down the aisle and whispered to Daniel. Daniel's eyes widened.
"They found him," Daniel said.
"The server?" Ethan asked.
Daniel nodded. "In the parking lot. Trying to leave with cash in his jacket."
The ballroom stirred again. Vivian closed her eyes for half a second, as if praying for the floor to open.
The young man was brought in through the side doors, no longer wearing his cap. He could not have been more than twenty-two. His name, according to security, was Owen Pike. He worked temp catering jobs across the city and had been promised two thousand dollars for delivering a box to the bride.
"Who paid you?" Ethan asked.
Owen stared at the marble floor. "A woman. Blond. Rich-looking. She said nobody would get hurt."
Maya barked out a laugh. "That's what villains say when they don't want to feel like villains."
Ethan held up the card. "Did she give you this?"
Owen nodded. "It was already inside. The cloth too. She said to make sure the bride opened it alone, but the other lady was there."
"Other lady?" Lily asked.
"The one in green," Owen said, nodding toward Maya. "She scared me."
"Good," Maya said.
Daniel showed Owen the paused video of Victoria. "Is this the woman?"
Owen nodded quickly. "Yes."
A sound moved through the room, part outrage, part satisfaction. People love a villain when the evidence is clean.
But Lily did not feel satisfied. Victoria had been cruel, yes, but the words on the card were not just jealousy. They were history. They were every dinner where Vivian had spoken over her, every party where someone asked what her father did and then looked away, every moment when wealth pretended to be character.
"Where is Victoria now?" Ethan asked.
Security exchanged glances.
Ruth smiled without warmth. "She is in the east sitting room. I asked the staff to keep her comfortable."
Vivian stared at her mother-in-law. "You knew?"
"I suspected." Ruth adjusted her pearls. "At my age, suspicion is simply experience wearing nicer shoes."
May you like
For the first time that day, laughter broke through the tension.
Then Ruth looked at Ethan. "Bring Victoria here. A private lie created this public shame. Let the truth be just as public."
