Chapter 4
Police arrived before dessert.
I did not call them.
Samuel had.
Two detectives entered through the side doors while Julian’s guests pretended not to stare.
No one laughed anymore.
No one called me trash.
Detective Maren Cole asked for the flash drive.
Samuel handed over a copy.
Then he looked at me.
“Claire, I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you before because Noah begged me to wait until you were safe.”
Safe.
From my ex-husband.
From his family.
From the truth.
I knelt in front of Noah.
“What happened?”
His face crumpled.
“I found the box when Dad made me clean the garage apartment last month.”
Julian had custody every other weekend.
He barely used it.
But once, he forced Noah to help move old boxes from his bachelor apartment into Victoria’s house.
“I thought it was your old stuff,” Noah whispered. “Then I saw the bracelet.”
“What made you look at the flash drive?”
“There was a note.”
He pulled another paper from his pocket.
Old.
Yellowed.
Written in shaky handwriting.
If anything happens to my baby, Elaine Vance knows why.
I looked at Julian’s mother.
Elaine stood perfectly still.
Her pearl necklace rested against her throat like a collar.
Detective Cole approached her.
“Mrs. Vance, we need you to come with us.”
Elaine laughed.
“You cannot arrest me at my son’s wedding.”
“No one said arrest,” Cole replied. “Yet.”
Victoria turned to Julian.
“Tell me this is fake.”
Julian stared at her.
“I was nineteen.”
My heart stopped.
Nineteen.
Before me.
Before our marriage.
Before Noah.
Before everything.
Julian kept his eyes on the floor.
“There was a girl.”
The ballroom went silent.
May you like
“She got pregnant.”
Noah whispered, “And then the baby disappeared.”
