Chapter 3
I showed the message to the nearest officer.
“There is someone inside my home.”
Officer Collins read it twice.
“Does anyone have permission to be there?”
“No.”
Amanda crossed her arms.
“He’s lying.”
I looked at her.
“You just said I signed away my house.”
“I was angry.”
Officer Collins separated us while his partner photographed Sophie’s cheek.
The sight of that small red handprint made me feel sick.
Sophie kept asking if I was mad at her.
Each time, I gave her the same answer.
“Never at you.”
Amanda refused to explain who R was.
She demanded a lawyer and insisted Sophie had injured herself.
Fortunately, the hallway camera had captured Amanda fleeing the bridal suite immediately after I shouted.
The suite itself had no visible camera.
But the venue manager approached me while the officers were questioning witnesses.
“There may be another recording,” she said quietly.
She pointed toward a decorative shelf.
“We installed a camera after jewelry disappeared during an event last month.”
Amanda heard her.
Her face drained of color.
The manager unlocked her office and pulled up the footage.
I held Sophie outside while Officer Collins watched it.
I did not want my daughter hearing those sounds again.
A few minutes later, he came out.
His jaw was tight.
“The recording shows everything.”
Amanda started screaming before he even reached her.
“That camera is illegal!”
Officer Collins placed her under arrest on suspicion of child abuse.
Cynthia threw herself between them.
“You cannot do this!”
Her daughter’s beautiful wedding gown filled the corridor as the officers pulled Amanda’s hands behind her back.
Guests stepped aside.
No one defended her.
Amanda twisted toward me.
“This is your fault, Daniel!”
I covered Sophie’s ears.
Amanda kept shouting.
“You think you won? Wait until you discover who R is!”
The officers led her outside.
Cynthia followed, promising lawsuits and revenge.
I wanted to collapse.
Instead, I carried Sophie into an empty reception room.
My mother, Margaret, came with us.
Sophie stared at the flower basket still hanging from her wrist.
“I ruined everything.”
My heart broke.
I sat her on my lap.
“You saved us.”
“But there’s no wedding.”
“That is why you saved us.”
She looked uncertain.
I kissed her forehead.
“A wedding should bring someone kind into our family. Amanda wasn’t kind.”
“Will she come home?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
My mother turned away to hide her tears.
Officer Collins entered and asked me to come to my house.
Another patrol unit had arrived there, but no one was answering the door.
I refused to leave Sophie.
“She comes with me, or I don’t go.”
My mother touched my shoulder.
“I’ll bring her in my car.”
Sophie immediately gripped my jacket.
“I want Daddy.”
So she stayed beside me.
We drove home in silence.
Two police vehicles were parked outside.
The front door showed no damage.
Whoever had entered possessed a key.
Officer Collins ordered us to remain across the street while officers searched the property.
I held Sophie against me.
Then a side door opened.
A man ran into the backyard.
An officer shouted.
The man jumped the fence, stumbled, and disappeared between two houses.
I only saw him for a second.
It was enough.
I knew the dark jacket.
I knew the way he favored his right leg.
That limp had come from a motorcycle accident when he was nineteen.
“No,” I whispered.
My mother heard me.
“What?”
I could barely force out the name.
“Ryan.”
She went completely still.
Ryan was my younger brother.
He had stood beside me at the altar less than an hour earlier.
He was supposed to be my best man.
An officer came out carrying a laptop bag and a folder.
“We found these on your dining table.”
Inside the folder was a copy of my deed.
Beside it was a notarized transfer bearing my signature.
A portable printer sat on the table, along with Amanda’s laptop.
Officer Collins opened the computer.
The screen displayed a bank account in the name of A&R Holdings.
Amanda and Ryan.
My mother sank onto the curb.
“They did this together?”
I wanted to deny it.
Then I saw a photograph beside the computer.
Amanda was kissing Ryan in my kitchen.
The date showed it had been taken three months earlier.
Sophie noticed the picture before I could hide it.
“Why is Uncle Ryan hugging Amanda?”
I closed the folder.
“I don’t know.”
But I did know.
My brother had betrayed me.
My fiancée had abused my daughter.
And together they had tried to steal the home Sophie’s mother had left us.
Then an officer called from upstairs.
“Mr. Miller, you need to see this.”
I followed him into Amanda’s closet.
Behind a row of dresses was a locked metal box.
The police opened it.
Inside were Sophie’s birth certificate, passport, and trust documents.
On top of them lay two one-way plane tickets.
Amanda Cole.
May you like
Sophie Miller.
The departure date was tomorrow morning.
