Chapter 3 - THE EMPTY CHAIR
The wedding ended without an announcement.
Guests were escorted out through the east entrance while security sealed the estate. The cake remained untouched. Champagne sweated in crystal flutes. Flowers that had cost more than some homes stood around a ballroom nobody wanted to enter.
Emiliano sent Grace upstairs with Mateo’s wife, Lena, and returned to the photographer.
His name was Daniel Park. His hands still shook.
“Who gave you the instructions?” Emiliano asked.
“Your wedding coordinator forwarded them yesterday.”
“From Celeste?”
Daniel hesitated. “The email came from her private account.”
Celeste stood twenty feet away with her lawyer now beside her.
“That proves nothing,” the lawyer said. “Accounts can be compromised.”
Daniel scrolled through his camera. “There’s something else.”
He showed Emiliano a photo taken during setup that morning. Adrian stood near the service entrance talking to a gray-haired man in a catering jacket.
Emiliano zoomed in.
His stomach tightened.
He knew the man.
Marcus Vale had owned the repair shop that inspected Isabella’s SUV two days before her fatal crash.
After her death, Marcus had told police the brakes were in perfect condition.
“What is he doing here?” Emiliano asked.
Daniel shook his head. “I thought he worked for catering.”
Mateo appeared beside them. “He doesn’t. I checked the vendor list.”
Celeste turned toward the doors.
Emiliano noticed.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
Mateo lowered his voice. “There’s another problem. Someone accessed the security server twenty minutes after the ceremony started. The greenhouse footage from last week is gone.”
Grace’s conversation.
Erased.
“Who has access?” Emiliano asked.
“Me. You. The house administrator.” Mateo looked at Celeste. “And the temporary credential Celeste requested for wedding logistics.”
Her lawyer stepped forward. “This is becoming absurd.”
Then Daniel made a quiet sound.
“What?” Emiliano asked.
The photographer stared at his screen.
“One of my memory cards is missing.”
“Which one?”
“The card with the pre-ceremony photos.”
Celeste said nothing.
Emiliano’s phone vibrated.
A message from Lena.
GRACE ISN’T IN THE SUITE.
May you like
The next line arrived before he could breathe.
THE WINDOW IS OPEN.
