Chapter 3 - BEFORE THE GUESTS ARRIVED
“Rosa, call 911!”
Mason grabbed my wrist.
I drove him against the hallway wall.
A framed photograph hit the floor.
For one ugly second, his forearm pressed against my throat.
Then the wedding coordinator came through the garden doors.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Mason let go.
His face changed as quickly as Victoria’s had.
“Daniel’s upset,” he said. “There’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Call the police,” I told her.
She stared at the broken glass.
“Now.”
Victoria rushed toward the stairs.
I caught her by the elbow.
“You’re staying here.”
“You can’t keep me prisoner.”
“Then walk outside and wait for the officers.”
Mason picked up his tool bag.
The coordinator stepped aside, frightened.
I couldn’t stop him without leaving Victoria near Lily.
That choice took less than a second.
I went to the breakfast room.
“Baby, it’s Daddy. Open the door.”
Rosa slid the lock.
Lily ran into my arms so hard her forehead struck my chin.
I held her anyway.
Outside, an engine started.
Mason was gone.
Victoria stood in the hall, breathing fast.
“You let him leave,” she said.
Something in her voice stopped me.
Not relief.
Accusation.
The first officers arrived twelve minutes later.
I gave them the phone without opening anything else.
An officer named Patel separated Victoria from us.
Another photographed the broken frame and the red marks on my neck.
Cars began turning into the driveway.
The string quartet started warming up.
I walked outside and told the coordinator to cancel everything.
She nodded once.
“No explanations needed.”
My brother, Owen, arrived while an officer was asking Victoria to step into the living room.
“What the hell happened?”
“Stay with Lily.”
“Daniel—”
“Please.”
He looked at my face and stopped asking.
Twenty minutes later, Detective Elena Ruiz arrived.
She listened without interrupting.
Then she asked about Caroline.
“Car accident,” I said. “Mill Creek Road. Last November.”
Ruiz’s pen stopped.
“Caroline Mercer?”
“Yes.”
She closed her notebook.
“I worked the response that night.”
My mouth went dry.
“Then you know it was an accident.”
May you like
She looked toward the living room, where Victoria sat beneath a painting Caroline had chosen.
“I know,” Ruiz said carefully, “that your wife wasn’t alone when her car left that road.”
