Chapter 14 - The Price of Choosing Sides
Joyce arrived at the attorney's office furious, then went very quiet when Harper showed her the message. She had spent weeks telling her daughter to finish the wedding, protect the family, and handle the baby later. Now she sat with both hands pressed between her knees.
"You knew about the guarantee?" Harper asked.
"I knew Silas wanted an investor. I didn't know he was forging anything."
Daniel was tired of guessing what people hid. He wanted documents, dates, and adults willing to put their names beside the truth.
Joyce admitted she'd asked a hotel employee to bring Lucía upstairs for an apology photo. "I thought a nice picture would settle everyone down," she said.
"You tried to pull a frightened child away from her grandmother," Daniel said. "That's not a misunderstanding you fix with a nice picture."
Joyce flinched. "I was wrong."
Harper asked whether she could write to Lucía. Daniel said she could send a letter through Nina, but Lucía would decide if and when she read it. No visit. No pressure to forgive.
Outside, rain began falling in thin gray lines. Harper stood at the steps, waiting for a ride. For the first time Daniel saw clearly that she was frightened of Silas too. It didn't erase what she'd done; it explained why she had kept doing it.
Nina's phone rang. Officer Malloy had obtained the event venue's lobby footage after a formal preservation request. It showed Tucker entering the hallway in a Navarro Restoration shirt on the storm night. It also showed him passing a packet to Silas.
"That's enough to take the financial investigation further," Nina said when she hung up.
But she looked troubled.
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"What is it?" Daniel asked.
"There was another clip. The camera by the children's dressing room at the wedding. Somebody followed Lucía in there before the ceremony. And it wasn't Harper."
