Chapter 19 - The Wedding Video
The strangest piece of evidence came from my own wedding videographer.
Her name was Lacey.
She called ten days after the ceremony.
“Elena, I’m sorry to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me.”
“I heard the honeymoon was canceled.”
I hesitated.
“Something like that.”
“There’s a clip I think you should see.”
My stomach tightened.
“What clip?”
“Your videographer station kept recording during dinner.”
I remembered the small camera near the service hallway.
“What did it catch?”
“I think you should watch it.”
She sent a private link.
Rebecca came over.
My father joined by video call.
We pressed play.
The footage showed the wedding reception shortly after I left the ballroom to change shoes.
Julian stood near the bar with Victoria.
They didn’t realize the camera could hear them.
Victoria leaned close to her son.
“Tomorrow morning.”
Julian nodded.
“I know.”
“Don’t let her sleep until noon.”
“I won’t.”
“She needs structure immediately.”
Julian laughed.
“I’ll handle it.”
Then Victoria asked, “Where’s the check?”
My chest tightened.
Julian answered.
“She packed it.”
“Do you know where?”
“Suitcase lining.”
I physically recoiled.
He knew.
He had searched my suitcase.
Victoria said, “Get it before she moves it.”
Julian shook his head.
“Not tonight.”
“She’ll notice.”
“Tomorrow after I get the banking password.”
My father swore through the video call.
The recording continued.
Victoria lifted her champagne.
“To getting you out of that debt.”
Julian clinked his glass against hers.
“To Elena.”
They laughed.
Not loudly.
Not villainously.
Casually.
That was what hurt.
My marriage had been toasted as a financial rescue plan while I was twenty yards away dancing with my mother.
Then came the line that ended whatever grief I still carried for Julian.
Victoria asked, “And if the trust isn’t what we think?”
Julian shrugged.
“Then there’s still the company stock.”
Rebecca paused the video.
No one spoke.
I stared at Julian’s frozen face on screen.
The man I had married.
The man I had once believed loved me.
The man who had smiled at me beneath white roses less than an hour before this conversation.
Something inside me finally closed.
Not shattered.
Closed.
A door.
A chapter.
A wound.
“I’m done mourning him.”
My father looked at me from the laptop screen.
Rebecca nodded.
“Good.”
I pointed at the recording.
“Give that to Detective Reyes.”
She did.
Then I emailed Lacey.
Thank you.
Her reply came quickly.
I’m sorry your wedding video became evidence.
I looked at the screen for a long time.
May you like
Then I typed.
Maybe it recorded the most important part of the wedding after all.
