Chapter 6 - THE BRIDE FIGHTS BACK
Natalie’s first counterattack arrived through a lawyer.
The letter accused me of defamation, wrongful cancellation of the wedding, retention of personal property, and “aggressive physical conduct” during the upstairs confrontation.
I read the phrase twice.
Aggressive physical conduct.
I had knocked her hand away from Sophie.
Fortunately, the hallway security camera had captured most of it.
The camera had no audio.
It did show Natalie grabbing Sophie’s hair.
It showed me arriving.
It showed me removing her hand and moving Sophie behind my body.
It showed Natalie lunging toward us again.
My attorney, Rachel Kim, watched the clip and said, “Keep the original system untouched. We preserve everything.”
The footage did not show the earlier slap clearly because a floral arrangement blocked part of the hallway.
But Dr. Hart’s photographs and Sophie’s statement existed.
The broken music box existed.
And Natalie’s own demand letter admitted a “disciplinary contact occurred during a struggle over an object.”
Lawyers can make terrible things sound sterile.
Natalie also demanded the return of “family photographs belonging to the Vale estate.”
That interested Rachel.
“How does she know what was in the box?”
“She saw the photograph.”
“Not everything else.”
I looked at her.
The safe-deposit documents were not public.
The brass key was not public.
Natalie’s letter specifically demanded “photographic and documentary materials originating from Bellmere.”
“How does she know there were documents?”
Rachel nodded.
“Exactly.”
Someone had told her.
Mara and I were the only people who knew what the box contained.
Unless Natalie already knew before it broke.
That possibility changed the meaning of the opening attack.
Maybe she had not smashed Caroline’s music box because she hated sentimental objects.
Maybe she knew something was hidden inside.
I remembered Sophie protecting it.
Natalie noticing.
The panic.
The desperate reach for the photograph.
“What if she was looking for the false bottom?” I asked.
Rachel leaned back.
“Then the assault may have been connected to evidence destruction, not only cruelty.”
That afternoon Anna brought me Sophie’s damaged dress.
“I thought you’d want it preserved.”
The pale blue flower-girl dress still had dust from the shattered box near the hem.
I almost told her to throw it away.
Then she pointed to a tiny tear near the waist.
“Look.”
A sliver of paper was caught inside the lining.
Not hidden deliberately.
Probably transferred when Sophie clutched the photograph to her chest.
I removed it with tweezers.
Three handwritten words.
Caroline’s writing.
Ask June Mercer.
I knew the name.
June had been Caroline’s college roommate.
They lost touch years before our marriage.
Or so I thought.
I found June through an alumni directory.
She answered cautiously.
When I identified myself, she went silent.
Then:
“I wondered when somebody would finally call.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did Caroline talk to you about Natalie?”
“Yes.”
“Before she died?”
“Yes.”
“How close to the accident?”
June inhaled.
“Forty-seven minutes.”
I sat down.
“What did she say?”
June’s voice softened.
“She said Natalie had found her again.”
Then:
May you like
“And she sounded scared.”
📖 Natalie’s legal attack accidentally revealed she knew more about the music box than she should, while Caroline’s hidden note led me to the last friend who heard her voice before she died. 👇
