Chương 4
“We were responding to a medical emergency.”
“She refused treatment.”
“She’s not capable of refusing.”
Rosalie came around Manuel’s shoulder.
“I am standing here,” she said.
The guard’s gaze flicked over the blood, the loosened dress, and the poker still in her hand. He seemed to calculate how the scene would appear to anyone who arrived without Emmett’s explanation prepared in advance.
The second guard touched his earpiece. “They’re behind the greenhouse.”
Manuel heard Maya speak from the phone. “Officers are moving toward the service entrance. Stay in an open area.”
The first guard reached for Rosalie.
Manuel caught his wrist.
The guard was stronger. Manuel felt the difference immediately. Years of early morning workouts and recreational boxing did not turn him into a professional security officer. The man rotated his arm, broke Manuel’s grip, and shoved him backward.
Manuel struck the greenhouse wall. Glass rattled.
Rosalie raised the poker.
“Don’t,” Manuel said.
It was not clear which of them he meant.
A voice cut across the lawn.
“Everybody step back.”
Two sheriff’s deputies came around the greenhouse, hands near their holsters. One was a broad woman in her forties. The other looked young enough to have attended high school with some of the catering staff.
The guards released Manuel and lifted their hands.
Rosalie lowered the poker.
Behind the deputies came Emmett, walking rather than running. Dr. Voss followed with his black medical bag. Emmett had restored his public expression. Concern softened his mouth. His silver hair remained immaculate.
“Thank God,” he said. “My daughter is having an episode.”
Rosalie went still.
The female deputy looked from Emmett to Rosalie. “Ma’am, are you hurt?”
“My dress cut me.”
“That is not the relevant injury,” Emmett said. “She has a documented psychiatric history and becomes paranoid under stress.”
The sentence had the polished shape of long use.
The deputy held up one hand. “Sir, I asked her.”
Emmett obeyed, though displeasure moved behind his eyes.
Rosalie gave the phone to Manuel. Her fingers were shaking now, after everything, as though her body had waited for authority to arrive before allowing fear.
The deputy approached slowly. “Do you want medical care?”
“Not from him.”
She pointed at Dr. Voss.
Voss tightened his grip on the bag. “I have treated Rosalie since adolescence.”
“That’s why,” she said.
The younger deputy turned on his body camera more obviously, perhaps to remind everyone it was recording.
The female deputy asked, “Do you want to leave the property?”
“Yes.”
“Is anyone preventing you?”
“My father ordered the gate closed. His men followed us through a hidden passage after forcing the bedroom door.”
Emmett exhaled through his nose. “She was injured and distraught. My staff acted to protect her.”
The deputy looked at Manuel. “You’re the husband?”
“About four hours.”
“Long night.”
“You could say that.”
The deputy did not smile. “Did you see anyone assault her?”
“I saw old restraint scars. I saw bruises she says she got yesterday. I heard Dr. Voss demand sedation before he examined her. I saw security break through a locked door after she refused entry.”
“Did you strike anyone?”
“With a fireplace poker when his hand came through the broken door toward the bolt.”
The injured guard said, “He attacked me.”
“You were reaching through a door you’d broken?”
The guard looked at Emmett before answering. The glance was brief, but the deputy saw it.
Rosalie reached into Manuel’s closed hand and removed the handkerchief-wrapped key.
“This was sewn into my mother’s wedding dress.”
Emmett’s face changed.
Only slightly. His smile did not disappear. His shoulders did not move. But his eyes fixed on the shape in Rosalie’s palm with such naked concentration that everyone followed his gaze.
“What is it?” the deputy asked.
“A key,” Rosalie said. “Marked L.D. 317.”
Emmett recovered. “A family keepsake.”
Maya’s voice came from the speaker. “Deputy, my name is Maya Chen. I’m an attorney licensed in this state, and I represent Mrs. Nelson. That key is believed to correspond to a sealed deposit box registered to her late mother.”
The deputy looked at the phone. “Counselor, I’ll need your information.”
“I’ll provide it. I’m also preserving this call.”
Emmett took one step toward Rosalie. “Give me the key.”
The female deputy moved between them.
“No.”
For the first time that night, Emmett’s expression failed completely. Rage did not make him loud. It made him look older.
“That item belongs to my family.”
Rosalie closed her fingers around it. “I am your family.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“I think that has been the point.”
Dr. Voss shifted the medical bag from one hand to the other.
The movement drew Manuel’s attention. The doctor’s coat hung open, and beneath it, strapped against the bag’s inner side, was a slim black case. Voss saw Manuel looking and pulled the coat closed.
“Deputy,” Manuel said, “check the doctor’s bag.”
Voss stepped back. “My medical equipment is confidential.”
The younger deputy said, “Do you have controlled substances?”
“I’m a physician.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Emmett turned his head toward Voss. It was a small motion, almost a warning.
The doctor’s nervousness finally broke through his professional posture. “I have medication commonly used for acute agitation.”
“Prescribed to her?” the deputy asked.
Voss hesitated. “Available for emergency administration.”
“Prescribed to her?”
“I would need to review the current chart.”
Rosalie gave a thin, humorless laugh. “He brought the needle before he saw the patient.”
Guests had begun appearing at the edge of the lawn. A man in a dinner jacket held his phone at chest height. Two bridesmaids stood near the ballroom terrace, coats thrown over their dresses. Manuel’s mother, Elena, came down the steps with one hand gripping the railing.
“What is happening?” she called.
Emmett looked toward the growing audience and found his smile again.
May you like
“My daughter is unwell. The deputies are assisting us.”
Rosalie’s shoulders folded inward by less than an inch. Manuel had already learned that was how she disappeared without moving.
