Chapter 2: The Key That No Longer Fit
His key didn't work.
I watched from the upstairs window.
Michael tried it three times.
Then he knocked.
Then he knocked harder.
I came to the door but didn't open it.
"Dad." His voice through the glass.
Calm.
Almost annoyed.
"The lock's changed."
"I know."
A pause.
"What's going on?"
"I watched the footage from the bridal corridor, Michael."
Silence.
Long enough to tell me everything I needed to know.
Then Cassandra's voice from behind him.
Sharp.
Quiet.
Controlled.
"He's bluffing.
The venue said that file was corrupted."
I heard that.
I opened the door then.
Just enough.
"She's right," I said.
"It was corrupted.
Their technician spent two days recovering it."
Michael's face didn't break.
That was the part that stayed with me.
No guilt.
No shame.
Just calculation.
"Dad, whatever you think you saw—"
"I saw your hand on your mother's arm.
I saw where she landed."
He glanced back at Cassandra.
She gave him one small nod.
And that nod told me exactly who was running things.
"We should talk about this inside," Michael said.
"You don't have a key anymore."
I closed the door.
Behind me, Ellen was standing at the bottom of the stairs.
She had heard everything.
Her face was pale.
Her hands were pressed flat against her sides — the same way they were in that corridor footage, right before Cassandra's hand came up.
She looked at me and said one thing.
"He's going to call your brother."
---
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What Robert found out next — about his brother — changed the shape of everything.
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