Chapter 2: The Second Figure in the Frame
The paramedics arrived within minutes.
They lifted Sophie onto a stretcher, and I held her hand the entire way out of that ballroom.
She kept whispering the same thing.
"I didn't take it, Mommy.
I promise."
"I know, baby," I told her.
"I know."
What I didn't tell her was that I had already seen the footage.
The hotel's head of security, a quiet man named Gerald, had pulled me aside near the lobby while the paramedics worked.
He turned his tablet toward me without a word.
The timestamp read 7:14 PM — twenty minutes before Preston grabbed the microphone.
The camera angle was clear.
Sharp.
Unmistakable.
Preston approached Sophie's chair while she was on the dance floor with me.
He slipped the phone into her jacket pocket in under four seconds.
Smooth.
Practiced.
Like he had planned it long before the wedding day.
But that wasn't what made my hands go cold.
It was the second figure in the frame.
Standing just behind Preston.
Watching the jacket.
Nodding once.
Gerald tapped the screen to pause it.
"Do you recognize her?" he asked quietly.
I did.
She had sat beside me at the family table all evening.
She had squeezed my hand when Sophie cried.
She had whispered, "Don't worry, Evelyn.
I'm right here."
My stomach dropped.
Gerald's voice was low.
"We've already called the police.
But there's something else on the recording you need to see.
Something that happened much earlier in the evening."
May you like
He pressed play.
And what appeared on that screen made the entire night make sense — in the worst possible way.
