Chapter 2 - THE CAMERAS
The wedding videographer lowered his camera only after I pointed at him.
“Don’t delete anything.”
He looked toward Vanessa.
Not Graham.
Vanessa.
That told me enough to keep moving.
Graham stepped closer. “Naomi, what is going on?”
I actually laughed.
“You’re asking me?”
His face hardened. “You walked into my wedding and hit both of us.”
“And your wife told a fourteen-month-old she should’ve stayed hidden.”
Vanessa recovered faster than I expected.
“She wandered under the table because Naomi abandoned her during the reception.”
I looked down at Maisie.
Her fingers were dug into my dress.
“She was supposed to be with Graham’s nanny.”
Vanessa’s mouth twitched.
“That nanny left.”
“When?”
No answer.
I pressed play again.
The recorder held several clips separated by bursts of silence. The next one began with Vanessa speaking to a man whose voice I didn’t recognize.
“If she swings first, you have what you need.”
The man replied, “Physical aggression helps, but custody doesn’t turn on one scene.”
Custody.
Graham heard it too.
His expression changed.
Vanessa reached for the recorder again.
“Give me that. You have no idea what she captured.”
I stepped back.
“No. Apparently that’s exactly what you’re afraid of.”
One of Graham’s groomsmen quietly asked guests to give us space. Nobody really did. They moved outward while pretending not to listen.
The wedding coordinator approached and whispered to Graham that security was available.
I told her to call them.
“And call the police.”
Vanessa’s eyes snapped toward me.
“For what?”
I pointed at Maisie.
“For whatever happened before I found my child hiding under a table terrified of you.”
Graham finally looked down at his daughter instead of at his ruined reception.
“Maisie.”
She turned her face into my hip.
He flinched.
That reaction mattered.
Whatever else Graham had done, he had not expected his daughter to recoil from him.
“Baby,” he whispered.
Maisie wouldn’t look up.
The recorder clicked into another file.
Vanessa’s voice again.
“Graham signs tonight. Tomorrow is too late.”
Then the same male voice.
“He thinks it’s the revised marital schedule?”
“Yes.”
“And Naomi?”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“She’ll be too busy proving she’s unstable.”
Graham went completely still.
“What am I supposed to sign tonight?”
Vanessa said nothing.
I looked toward the gift table, the cake, the champagne, the elegant stationery spread near the head table.
Then I noticed a black leather folder beside Graham’s place setting.
His name was embossed on the front.
Vanessa moved toward it.
I got there first.
Inside were several documents.
The top page said POST-MARRIAGE FAMILY CARE AGREEMENT.
Beneath it, in smaller type, was a section involving temporary residential authority over Maisie.
Graham stared down at the papers.
“I’ve never seen this page.”
Vanessa’s face changed again.
For the first time, fear became calculation.
And I understood the next problem.
The recording suggested Vanessa had planned to use my anger against me.
May you like
But those papers suggested she was trying to use Graham too.
📖 The cameras explained why Vanessa provoked me, but the hidden agreement beside Graham’s seat revealed that my daughter’s custody was already being rewritten inside the wedding. 👇
