Chương 3
Then toward the guests.
Then back at Daniel.
“I don’t know if this is the place.”
Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh.
“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
He lowered his voice.
“Everyone keeps saying not here, not now, not today.”
Marcus looked down.
“Because today was supposed to be different.”
“For who?”
Nobody answered.
The question remained between them.
A wedding was built around promises made publicly.
But some promises were broken quietly.
Marcus took a slow breath.
“Emily asked me to hold onto something for her.”
Daniel stared.
“What something?”
“The same drive.”
Rebecca closed her eyes briefly.
It was the first moment where Daniel saw something close to panic.
Not confusion.
Not sadness.
Panic.
“Where is it?” Daniel asked.
Marcus looked at Rebecca.
That was all it took.
Daniel understood there was another conversation happening beneath the one everyone could hear.
“Marcus.”
“I gave it back.”
“To Emily?”
Marcus nodded.
“She told me she didn’t need me involved anymore.”
“When?”
“Two days before she went back into the hospital.”
Daniel looked at Noah.
The little boy was watching all of them with the exhausted attention of a child trying to understand adult voices.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Because Emily asked me not to.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“My daughter was dying and she asked you to keep something from me?”
Marcus flinched.
“I know how it sounds.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
His voice remained low, but the anger underneath it was impossible to miss.
“You don’t get to tell me how it sounds.”
The words hurt Marcus.
Daniel saw that.
He regretted them immediately.
But regret did not erase them.
That was another thing grief had taught him.
You could apologize for hurting someone and still have meant what you said.
Rebecca quietly said, “We need to stop doing this in front of Noah.”
Daniel looked down.
She was right.
And he hated that she was right.
Noah was not an accusation.
He was a child standing inside a storm he never created.
Daniel crouched beside him again.
“Buddy, can you go with Marcus for a minute?”
Noah shook his head.
“I want to stay.”
“I know.”
Daniel adjusted the boy’s crooked bow tie.
A small, ordinary action.
Something he had done dozens of times.
It nearly broke him.
“You don’t have to carry this by yourself.”
Noah’s eyes filled slightly.
“I promised Mommy.”
Daniel touched his cheek.
“You kept your promise.”
The boy nodded.
Marcus gently placed a hand on Noah’s shoulder.
“Come with me for a minute, okay?”
This time Noah went.
He did not want to.
Daniel could see that.
But he trusted Marcus enough to walk away.
That trust looked small.
Almost invisible.
But after everything that had happened, Daniel noticed every piece of trust that remained.
Rebecca waited until they were gone.
Then she whispered, “You think I hurt Emily.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I think I don’t know what happened.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
The honesty seemed to hurt her more than an accusation.
Rebecca looked toward the bridal suite door.
The room behind it contained her wedding dress, her makeup, her flowers, and all the evidence of the life she thought she was about to begin.
“I loved Emily.”
Daniel said nothing.
“I did.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
The question caught him off guard.
Rebecca folded her arms.
“Because sometimes I wonder if you ever saw me as anything except the person who came after her.”
Daniel looked away.
That was the first accusation she made that felt personal rather than defensive.
And because it felt personal, it was harder to dismiss.
“I never wanted someone to replace Emily.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you saying this?”
“Because I was always standing next to a ghost.”
Daniel had no answer.
The music from the ballroom continued.
A cheerful song.
A song chosen because it made people smile.
Rebecca’s eyes moved toward the guests.
“They’re all waiting.”
Daniel followed her gaze.
Families.
Friends.
People who had traveled to celebrate them.
People who would soon learn that something had happened.
“Maybe they should wait.”
Rebecca looked back at him.
“Do you know what’s on that drive?”
“No.”
“Then you’re about to let a three-year-old decide whether we walk into that room.”
Daniel felt the words hit him.
Not because they were fair.
Because there was a small part of him that feared they were.
Noah was the reason he stopped.
But Noah was not the evidence.
The evidence was still hidden.
Daniel looked at the USB drive.
“Then we find out.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
For a moment, she looked less like a bride and more like someone who had been carrying a secret too heavy for too long.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
Her voice dropped.
“If you open that, there is no going back.”
He stared at her.
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
A silence passed.
Then Daniel turned toward the hotel office down the corridor.
The wedding coordinator had a computer there.
A place where they could view the drive without involving the entire room.
He took one step.
Then another.
Behind him, Rebecca did not follow.
That frightened him more than if she had tried to stop him.
Because people who had nothing to hide usually wanted answers too.
The hotel office was smaller than Daniel remembered.
It had always seemed like a harmless place before, a room filled with schedules, printed menus, extra flower arrangements, and people solving ordinary problems.
Today it felt like a courtroom without a judge.
The wedding coordinator, a woman named Sandra, looked up from her computer when Daniel entered.
Her expression changed immediately.
She had spent the entire morning making sure every detail went smoothly.
Now she was watching the groom walk in with his bride several steps behind him and a look on his face that belonged to someone who had just discovered the ground beneath him was unstable.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
Daniel almost laughed.
May you like
The question was too simple.
Too normal.
