Chapter 15 - THE VIDEO THAT ENDED THE LIE
The new footage was clearer than anything Aaron captured.
I almost wished it was not.
There I was.
Blue dress.
Silver earrings.
Smiling because Vanessa had asked me to stand beside her for one final picture.
Derek entered the frame holding the cannon.
Vanessa took my arm.
Moved me six inches.
Derek looked down at the barrel.
Then at my face.
He adjusted his position.
Not accidentally.
Deliberately.
The cannon fired.
My head snapped away.
I covered my eye immediately.
People laughed.
Derek laughed too.
But only for one second.
Then he looked at the launcher.
His expression changed.
Not surprise that I was hurt.
Concern that something had gone wrong.
Vanessa reached toward my hand.
“Open your eye.”
she said.
The hidden microphone captured everything.
I whispered,
“I can’t see.”
Vanessa answered,
“You always do this.”
Derek stepped closer.
Then his voice came quietly.
“Get the picture.”
Vanessa froze.
“What?”
“Get the picture.”
She took out her phone.
That was the moment.
Not confusion.
Not misunderstanding.
Derek wanted an after photograph.
The camera also recorded Victor Hale standing near the ballroom entrance.
When he saw blood, he turned away immediately.
Patricia appeared several seconds later.
She looked at me.
Then at Derek.
Derek shook his head once.
Patricia’s lips tightened.
She walked away.
No one called an ambulance.
No one stopped the music.
Aaron was the first guest who eventually followed me into the lobby.
The prosecution played the video for Derek’s attorney.
By evening, negotiations changed.
Derek no longer claimed the cannon had been switched.
He admitted modifying it.
He insisted he intended only a minor injury.
The detective interviewing him asked the obvious question.
“How minor?”
Derek had no answer.
Then police received the laboratory report on the metal fragments.
They matched the material purchased with Vanessa’s card.
But residue inside the second missing cannon suggested Derek had tested the modification before the wedding.
Where?
Investigators searched his old rental garage.
They found cardboard targets.
Three had circular marks around the eye area of printed human faces.
May you like
One photograph remained taped to the final target.
My photograph.
