Chapter 2: I've Seen Him Before
The security manager turned the tablet so the room could see.
The footage was clear.
Timestamp, angle, everything.
Sophie hadn't gone near the gift table.
Not once.
What the camera showed was Preston — reaching into the gift display himself, slipping the brooch into his jacket pocket, then turning and pointing directly at my daughter.
He had framed her.
An eight-year-old girl in a yellow dress.
A woman near the back gasped.
Someone else said "Oh my God" loud enough for the whole room to hear.
Preston's face had gone the color of ash.
"That's — the angle is misleading," he said.
"You're misreading what you're seeing."
"We're all seeing the same thing," said the security manager.
Quietly.
Carefully.
Margaret's hand slid off Preston's shoulder.
I looked at him.
"You planted it," I said.
"And then you h*t my child with a board so no one would look at you."
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Sophie was still holding my sleeve.
"Mommy," she whispered.
"Why did he pick me?"
I didn't have an answer yet.
But then one of the guests stepped forward — a woman I didn't recognize — and said four words that made Preston go completely still.
"I've seen him before."
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What this woman knew about Preston — and why he targeted Sophie — is revealed in the full story.
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The truth is worse than anyone in that room expected.
