Chapter 13 - The Wrong Target
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Vanessa finally whispered, “Dead?”
Daniel replayed the audio.
Crowe’s voice was unmistakable.
You’re done when Daniel is dead.
Grant slammed both hands on the table. “Call the police.”
Nathan was already doing it.
Daniel looked at the champagne flute sealed in an evidence bag.
The sedative suddenly felt like the first step, not the whole plan.
Rachel’s face changed.
“The cake.”
Daniel turned.
“What about it?”
“The cake wasn’t supposed to hurt Emma.”
She looked toward the shattered pedestal.
“It was supposed to move you.”
The wedding planner pulled up the original floor diagram.
Daniel’s assigned place for the cake-cutting had been directly beside the pedestal.
If the cake had fallen ten minutes later, during the formal cutting, the heavy silver stand would have crashed toward him.
The cord had been pulled early.
Daniel looked at the message on the burner phone.
SHE IS BESIDE THE CAKE.
PULL WHEN GRANT MOVES TO THE COLUMN.
The saboteur had changed the timing because Emma wandered too close.
But why?
Noah spoke quietly.
“Maybe they didn’t want Emma hurt.”
Everyone looked at him.
He pointed to the phone.
“The message says she is beside the cake. Then pull. Maybe ‘she’ isn’t Emma.”
Daniel reread it.
His eyes moved across the ballroom.
Vanessa had been beside the cake at 8:07 too.
Grant looked at his sister.
“Oh God.”
Vanessa stepped back.
Daniel checked another message.
GIRL DID NOT PANIC ENOUGH.
Maybe the “girl” was Emma.
Maybe the first “she” was Vanessa.
The plan had more than one target.
Daniel’s phone rang again.
This time it was Owen.
Live.
Daniel answered.
“Owen, where are you?”
“Parking garage. Level B3.” His breathing was ragged. “Crowe is here.”
Daniel stood.
“Stay where you are.”
“I can’t.”
A sharp sound cracked through the call.
Owen gasped.
May you like
Then whispered, “He knows Vanessa was never supposed to survive the wedding either.”
The line went dead.
