Chapter 3 - Three Seconds on a Camera
By midnight, our wedding had become a story people were telling online. One guest posted a blurry clip with the caption ELDERLY MOM RUINS SON'S BIG DAY. Another claimed Mom had attacked Harper with her cane. The cruelest comments came from strangers who hadn't seen a thing.
Strangers who didn't know my mother were calling her senile.
Jonah found me there. We'd been friends since seventh grade. He handed me coffee I couldn't taste.
"Your bride's publicist called three reporters," he said.
"My bride doesn't have a publicist."
"She hired one this afternoon."
He showed me a screenshot. Harper's statement said she'd been "physically confronted during an emotional family incident" and requested privacy. It didn't mention pushing anyone.
"Leah has video," Jonah said. "The videographer. She wants to talk."
Leah Torres met us behind her studio. She held a hard drive tight to her chest. "Someone called my assistant asking us to erase the ceremony footage," she said. "Offered five thousand dollars."
"Who?"
"The call came from a private number. I backed everything up."
She played the wide shot first. Mom was walking along the front row with her cane. Harper stepped away from the altar to meet her. At first the sound was lost beneath music. Then Leah switched to the camera pointed toward the vows.
Mom's voice was thin but clear. "Those documents are mine. Give me back the envelope."
"You're embarrassing yourself," Harper hissed.
"I watched you take it out of my bag."
Harper's hand closed around Mom's forearm. Mom pulled away. Harper pushed with both hands, fast and hard. Mom's cane skidded sideways. Dad caught her before her head hit the step.
For three seconds, nobody spoke. Even Jonah looked sick.
"There's more," Leah said.
She rewound to the hour before the ceremony. The reception tent was empty except for caterers. Harper entered with a dark-haired man in a gray suit. He handed her a narrow silver key. She slipped it into her bouquet.
I recognized the man, although he hadn't been on our guest list. Grant Weller. President of Alder Ridge Development, the company that had made the thirty-two-million-dollar offer.
May you like
Then Leah zoomed in on what Harper said as she accepted the key.
"Once Helen falls," she whispered, "Arthur will be too busy to stop us."
