CHAPTER 1: THE TRUTH NO ONE COULD DENY
CHAPTER 1: THE TRUTH NO ONE COULD DENY
Silence swallowed the ballroom.
Every guest stared at the massive screen.
The detective rewound the footage.
"Play it again."
The video rolled.
Emma, the eight-year-old flower girl, stood quietly beside the dessert table, nervously holding the tiny basket she had carried during the ceremony.
She never even touched the man.
"Pause."
The detective pointed toward the image.
"Zoom in."
The technician enlarged the frame.
A collective gasp echoed through the room.
The expensive gold smartphone...
...was already tucked inside the man's right hand.
He had never lost it.
He had never been robbed.
He had lied.
The detective folded his arms.
"So tell me again..."
"...how did this little girl steal a phone you never let go of?"
The man's face drained of color.
"I... I..."
He couldn't answer.
Then another angle appeared.
This one showed him deliberately shoving Emma.
She stumbled backward.
Her forehead struck the sharp edge of the carved oak menu display.
The impact sent blood across the elegant white wedding menu.
Several guests covered their mouths.
One woman burst into tears.
Emma's mother collapsed into a chair.
"You attacked her..."
The detective's voice was calm.
"...because you wanted everyone to believe she was a thief."
The ballroom erupted.
Guests who had defended the man moments earlier now backed away from him as though he carried a disease.
"No..."
he whispered.
"It wasn't supposed to happen like this."
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But the camera never lied.
Neither did the blood still staining the polished marble floor.
