Chapter 1 - THE LEFT SIDE
Detective Marissa Cole left the photograph on my kitchen table.
I could not stop looking at the message.
Make sure Claire stands on my left when we fire it.
I only get one clean shot.
The words felt colder than the injury itself.
Derek had not simply pointed a party cannon in my direction.
He had chosen where I would stand.
He had chosen which side of my face would be closest.
And my sister had apparently helped him.
Marissa watched me carefully.
“Do you know why your left side would matter?”
“No.”
“Anything unusual about your left eye?”
“No.”
“Any medical condition?”
I shook my head.
Then I remembered something.
Two weeks before the wedding, Vanessa had asked whether I still wore contact lenses.
I had thought it was an ordinary question.
She had been complaining about makeup and photographs.
I told her I wore one lens in my left eye because the prescription was stronger.
Marissa wrote that down.
“Did Derek hear the conversation?”
“He was sitting beside her.”
That changed her expression.
I pressed my fingertips against the bandage over my eye.
The doctor said the abrasion should heal.
My vision had already begun improving.
But suddenly I wondered whether Derek had expected that.
“Could the metal have blinded me?”
I asked.
Marissa did not answer immediately.
“It could have caused a more serious injury.”
My stomach tightened.
She closed her notebook.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
Police had searched Derek and Vanessa’s hotel suite after obtaining a warrant.
Inside a toiletry bag hidden beneath clothing, they found several tiny plastic bags.
Two contained ordinary silver confetti.
One contained the same type of metal fragments recovered from the cannon.
Another bag was empty.
Derek told police the materials belonged to a craft project.
Vanessa claimed she knew nothing about them.
“Do you believe her?”
I asked.
Marissa looked directly at me.
“I believe the video.”
Aaron’s video showed Vanessa standing beside Derek while he opened the cannon.
Her face was visible.
So were her hands.
At one point, she held the plastic bag while Derek poured its contents inside.
My sister had not merely watched.
She had helped.
Then Marissa asked the question that made my chest go tight.
“Claire, does Vanessa benefit financially if something happens to you?”
I almost said no.
May you like
Then I remembered our mother’s will.
And the inheritance neither Vanessa nor I had received yet.
