Chapter 3: What He Did the Night Before
Claire found them behind the tasting room.
Amanda was sitting on a low stone wall, Sophie pressed against her side.
Neither of them was crying anymore.
That was almost worse.
"I'm sorry," Claire said.
"I didn't know what to do with the photo.
I almost deleted it."
"Don't apologize," Amanda said.
"You didn't do anything wrong."
Claire sat down across from them on an overturned crate.
She still had the camera in her hands.
"There's something else," she said.
Amanda looked up.
"I was here last night.
The vineyard asked me to come early — they wanted some dusk shots of the setup.
The fairy lights, the arbor." Claire paused.
"I was packing up around nine when I saw Ryan's car still in the lot."
Sophie straightened.
"He told Mom he was having dinner with his groomsmen."
"He was," Claire said.
"But they left around eight.
Ryan stayed."
Amanda's voice was very even.
"Who was he with?"
Claire turned the camera over in her hands.
"I didn't see her face clearly.
It was dark.
But I saw them go into the storage building together." She looked at Amanda.
"The same building from the photograph."
No one spoke for a moment.
Then Amanda said, "Show me."
Claire hesitated.
"It's not clear.
It was taken from a distance."
"Show me anyway."
Claire pulled up the image.
The frame was dark and grainy — the vineyard at night, the stone building in the background, two figures near the door.
One of them was unmistakably Ryan.
The other was a woman in a light-colored coat.
Sophie leaned in.
Her breath caught.
"That coat," she said.
"I've seen that coat."
"Sophie—" Amanda started.
"Mom.
I've seen it today." Sophie looked at her mother.
"Melissa was wearing it when she walked in."
The three of them sat with that for a moment.
Then footsteps came around the corner of the tasting room and Ryan appeared.
He had loosened his tie.
His expression had shifted from panic into something harder and more deliberate.
"Amanda.
We need to talk.
Privately."
"We're talking now."
His eyes moved to Claire.
"Not with her here."
"Claire stays," Amanda said.
Ryan's jaw tightened.
He looked at Sophie.
"Can you give us a minute, sweetheart?"
"Don't," Sophie said flatly.
He took a breath.
"I know how this looks.
But Melissa and I have been separated for over a year.
The marriage is finished.
The paperwork just — it got delayed."
"Delayed," Amanda repeated.
"These things take time.
Lawyers, scheduling—"
"Ryan." Amanda's voice didn't rise.
"She drove here with your son.
She knew exactly where to find you.
She knew the name of the vineyard, the time of the ceremony." She paused.
"That is not a separated woman."
He opened his mouth.
"And she was here last night," Sophie said.
Ryan went still.
"In the storage building," Sophie continued.
"Claire has the photo."
The deliberate expression cracked.
Just slightly.
But it cracked.
"That's — that's not what that was."
"Then what was it?" Amanda asked.
He didn't answer.
Amanda stood up from the wall.
She smoothed the front of her wedding dress once, a small automatic gesture, and then she seemed to notice what she was wearing and stopped.
"I need you to leave me alone now, Ryan."
"Amanda—"
"I'm not asking."
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then his voice dropped, and something shifted in it — less panic, more calculation.
"You walk away from this today, you walk away from everything we built.
The house.
The plans.
Everything."
Sophie stood up beside her mother.
Claire stood up too.
Ryan looked at all three of them.
Then he turned and walked back around the corner of the building.
Amanda didn't move until his footsteps faded.
"He just threatened you," Sophie said quietly.
"I know."
"What are we going to do?"
Amanda looked down at her daughter.
Then she looked at Claire.
"Did you back up those photos anywhere?"
Claire nodded slowly.
"Everything auto-uploads to my cloud drive.
The kiss.
The nighttime shot.
All of it."
"Good," Amanda said.
"Don't delete anything."
She reached up and unpinned the small floral piece from her hair.
May you like
She set it down on the stone wall.
"Now let's go find Melissa."
