Chapter 5 - The Wedding Video
Daniel stood slowly and kept his hands visible. "I'll cooperate."
The officers cuffed him while Eleanor gripped her purse. Rebecca followed them downstairs, demanding the charge details and arranging counsel. Daniel didn't argue that Madison had deserved it. He knew better.
At the station, a detective named Paula Ortiz played the edited wedding video. Daniel watched himself strike Madison and felt sick.
"I did that," he said. "I regret it."
At booking Daniel surrendered his belt and watch, answered the officer's questions, and sat beneath fluorescent lights that made every minute look the same. He thought about the way strangers would see the recording and knew most would be right to recoil. His anger had made someone else afraid. A deputy offered him a phone call. He used it to apologize to Eleanor for leaving her alone with the reporters. She told him she was safe with Rebecca and that he should listen carefully to the attorney. 'No grand gestures,' she warned. 'Just tell the truth.' He had never loved her more. When he stepped back outside later, the town looked unchanged, and his life looked impossible to recognize.
"Then why leave?"
"Because I wanted to prevent anything else from happening."
Ortiz studied him. "There's a second video. A guest sent it anonymously. It shows the bride grabbing your grandmother's arm before you arrived. We're investigating that separately. It doesn't cancel what you did."
"I understand."
By evening Rebecca had arranged his release with an upcoming court date and conditions to avoid contacting Madison. Daniel accepted them. Outside, news vans waited at the curb. He ducked into Rebecca's car beside Eleanor and asked for the first time, "Could Madison have known about the trust?"
Rebecca kept both hands on the wheel. "Her mother, Celeste Vale, sits on the board of a company that acquired Ashford Mill's assets. That connection was disclosed in a trust alert this morning."
Eleanor made a quiet sound. "The woman in blue at the wedding."
"Yes," Rebecca said. "And the attempted access came from a law firm her family uses."
Daniel remembered Celeste insisting Madison choose the guest list, the photographs, even the date of the ceremony. He had called it controlling. Madison had called it tradition.
"Did I marry her?" he asked suddenly.
Rebecca shook her head. "The officiant says the ceremony was completed, but the signed license was not yet returned to the county. Under state law it may still be valid. I'll check rather than guess. Keep the paperwork untouched."
May you like
His stomach dropped. The reception was over, but the legal part might not be.
At Rebecca's office, a package waited on the floor. No return address. Inside was a child's faded pink sweater and a note: MARA REMEMBERS THE SMOKE. DO YOU REMEMBER THE MAN?
