Chapter 3 - The Man in the Black Suit
Daniel reached the service corridor seconds too late.
The man was gone.
A rear exit swung in the wind.
Detective Reed arrived behind him.
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
Lily's voice came from behind them.
“Yes.”
Daniel turned.
She was standing with Emma.
“Lily?”
“I saw him.”
“What did he look like?”
She thought carefully.
“He had a scar.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
She touched the left side of her jaw.
Daniel looked at Reed.
“Check the security footage.”
They spent the next two hours reviewing cameras.
Finally, they found him.
A man entering the hotel at 3:17 p.m.
He wore a black suit.
Gray tie.
Dark glasses.
A scar along his jaw.
Reed froze.
“I know him.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Who?”
“Samuel Voss.”
“Who is that?”
“A former Whitmore security contractor.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
“Former?”
“He disappeared five years ago.”
Reed zoomed in.
Samuel was carrying a small black case.
Daniel remembered seeing that case.
At the rehearsal dinner.
Victoria had been speaking to Samuel.
He had assumed the man was one of the caterers.
Now everything looked different.
Daniel confronted Victoria.
She refused to speak.
Her attorney told him to leave.
Then Daniel saw something on her wrist.
A bruise.
Finger marks.
“Who did that?”
Victoria covered it.
“It's nothing.”
“Victoria.”
She looked at him.
For the first time since the wedding began, her expression broke.
“I didn't want to do it.”
Daniel stared.
“You admit it?”
“I didn't have a choice.”
“Who forced you?”
She began crying.
“Your father.”
The words hit him like a physical blow.
Daniel stepped backward.
“No.”
Victoria nodded.
“He knew about my brother.”
“What about your brother?”
“He's in prison.”
Daniel's jaw tightened.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“Your father arranged for him to be transferred to a private facility.”
Daniel didn't understand.
“He said if I didn't follow his instructions, my brother would die there.”
Daniel looked toward Reed.
Victoria continued.
“He gave me the vial.”
“Why poison me?”
“Because you were going to expose him.”
Daniel's heart raced.
“Expose him for what?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
She looked at Lily.
The little girl was standing outside the doorway.
Victoria whispered:
“Her father.”
Emma froze.
Daniel turned toward her.
“Your husband?”
Emma's eyes filled with tears.
“My husband died two years ago.”
Daniel stared.
Victoria nodded.
“He was Daniel's father's accountant.”
Daniel felt the world shift.
Emma had never told him.
His father's accountant had died suddenly.
Officially, heart failure.
But apparently he had left something behind.
Something Victoria's father feared.
Something that could destroy the Whitmore family.
Lily walked toward Daniel.
She held his hand.
“My daddy told me never to trust bad people.”
Daniel knelt.
“Your daddy was right.”
She looked at him.
“Are you a bad person?”
Daniel's throat tightened.
“No.”
She studied him.
“Then don't become like them.”
Daniel hugged her.
“I won't.”
That night, Detective Reed found something in the recovered security footage.
Samuel Voss hadn't left the hotel alone.
He had taken someone with him.
Victoria.
But the woman in the video wasn't Victoria.
It was her twin sister.
A woman Daniel had never heard of.
May you like
Her name was Elena Hale.
And according to the footage, she had entered the hotel two hours before the wedding.
