Chapter 12 - The Video Everyone Was Missing
Iris had captured the entire wedding from three cameras.
One showed Celeste walking toward Oliver before he reached the cake table.
Another showed her lifting the top tier and emptying it deliberately onto his head.
The third showed me shielding him and Celeste throwing cake at my face before stumbling into the table.
Nina sent the unedited recordings to the investigators and Celeste's attorney.
After discussing privacy with Rebecca and Elena, we approved the release of a short segment that established the truth without showing Oliver's face.
By evening the comments defending Celeste had evaporated.
People who had called my son spoiled were apologizing to a child they didn't know.
But public support didn't make him sleep better.
That night he asked me to check the closet three times. He had started hiding his shoes beneath the bed, afraid somebody would take them when he wasn't looking.
"I can put them by the door if you want," I offered.
"No. Then she could find them."
I sat beside him until his breathing slowed.
At ten, Celeste appeared in an interview claiming the footage was "missing context."
She wore plain clothes and no makeup. She called me controlling and said she'd been trying to build a family with a traumatized child.
"I loved Oliver like my own," she told the camera.
I turned it off.
Then my phone lit up with a voicemail from Patrick.
"Daniel, I copied the original transaction logs before they were changed. There is a second company involved. Not North Quay. Call me before Friday morning."
I called immediately.
May you like
A stranger answered.
"Patrick's phone was found beside his car," the man said. "Nobody knows where he is."
