Chapter 7 - A Voice That Wasn't a Confession
Nathan saw the message too. He lunged for Owen's phone, but his brother jerked away.
"Get your hands off me!"
A chair toppled. One of the women in the first row gasped. Security guards started toward us, then stopped when Nathan shouted, "Nobody leaves until the police get here!"
Owen shoved his phone into his pocket. "You have no authority to detain anyone."
"He's right," Detective Moreno said from the main entrance. "But I can ask questions, and I need everyone to stay available."
She'd arrived with another officer and a radio that wouldn't stop crackling. Tessa let out a shaky breath.
Moreno took the card from my bouquet, logged who had handled it, and asked Tessa to walk with her toward the side office. She didn't pretend a memory card alone was enough to arrest anyone. She wanted the original device, records, and witnesses to support what it showed.
Nathan crouched before me. "Evie, please look at me."
I did.
"Did you hear me say those words? Or a recording?"
"A recording. I couldn't tell where it came from at first."
"I never said them."
"I want that to be true."
He swallowed. "My company makes public presentations every week. Owen has years of my recorded voice. But that's not proof of anything."
"Neither is your denial," I whispered.
The hurt on his face was terrible because I knew it was real. If he was innocent, I'd become another person accusing him. If he wasn't, love had made me blind.
Nathan reached into his jacket and produced his phone. "Take it. Give it to Moreno. My messages, my locations, every app. I won't ask you to trust me until you've had a reason."
I couldn't hold it properly. He placed it gently beside my bouquet.
Across the room, his mother hissed at Owen, "You told me the girl didn't have the recording."
May you like
The words were quiet, but the microphone on Tessa's still-running wedding camera caught them.
I watched Moreno turn toward Celeste. For the first time that day, Nathan's mother looked frightened of something other than gossip.
