Chapter 7 - Twenty-Four Minutes Before I Said I Do
The security image followed me into Rebecca's office like a ghost.
Daniel in his tuxedo.
Emily in front of him.
Her hand on his chest.
His hand around her wrist.
Twenty-four minutes before I walked down the aisle.
Rebecca studied the image without reacting.
"Where did this come from?"
"Mark says a friend of Emily's got it from someone at the venue."
"That chain of custody is terrible."
"I know."
"But it gives us somewhere to look."
She called the estate's event manager while I sat across from her desk.
The manager confirmed the service entrance had exterior security cameras.
She would not release footage to us without authorization from the property owner, but she agreed to preserve the recordings.
Then I called our wedding planner, Natalie Price.
Natalie answered sounding cheerful until she heard my voice.
"Hannah, honey, how are you?"
The question almost broke me.
"Not great."
I told her Daniel and I were separated.
There was a long pause.
"Oh."
Then another.
"I am so sorry."
"Natalie, did you see a woman named Emily Carter at the venue before the ceremony?"
Silence.
My entire body tensed.
"Natalie?"
"I did not know who she was."
I closed my eyes.
"But you saw her."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Daniel told me she was a former coworker who had come by unexpectedly."
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"Where were they?"
"Near the service entrance."
"How long?"
"Maybe ten minutes."
"Did they look upset?"
Natalie hesitated.
"She did."
"Did he?"
"He looked... tense."
"Did they touch?"
Another hesitation.
"She touched him."
"Did he touch her?"
"Yes."
I looked at Rebecca.
"How?"
"He held her arms for a moment."
"Did they kiss?"
"Not that I saw."
I let out a breath I had not realized I was holding.
Then Natalie said, "There may be more."
"What do you mean?"
"The videographer had Daniel mic'd early."
My heart stopped.
"How early?"
"Before the ceremony."
I sat completely still.
Our videographer, Mason Reed, had attached a wireless microphone beneath Daniel's lapel because the ceremony was outdoors and the officiant wanted clean audio for the final film.
I remembered joking that Daniel should not say anything embarrassing before the vows.
He had laughed.
"Would it have recorded the service entrance?"
"If the transmitter was live."
"Was it?"
"I don't know."
Rebecca was already writing Mason's name on her legal pad.
We contacted him immediately.
Mason said he still had every raw audio file because he had not started editing the wedding film.
He promised to preserve everything.
He also said something that made my stomach twist.
"There is one long pre-ceremony file I haven't listened to."
"How long?"
"About forty minutes."
"Can you send it?"
"If both parties agree or if your attorney gives me a formal preservation request, yes."
Rebecca handled the rest.
The file arrived that afternoon.
I did not listen immediately.
I stared at it on Rebecca's laptop for almost five minutes.
A forty-minute audio file from the last forty minutes before my marriage.
Somewhere inside it might be the answer to the question I had asked Daniel over and over.
Why did you marry me?
Rebecca looked at me.
"You do not have to hear this today."
"Yes, I do."
She pressed play.
The first minutes were ordinary.
Groomsmen joking.
A door opening.
Daniel asking someone where his cuff links were.
His best man, Chris, telling him to breathe.
Then footsteps.
A woman's voice, distant at first.
"Daniel."
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Emily.
Daniel said something too softly to hear.
The footsteps became louder.
Then Emily spoke clearly.
"You didn't think I would come."
"I told you not to."
"You also told me not to marry Mark until we figured this out."
"Not here."
"Where, Daniel?"
"Emily, please."
"You have twenty minutes before you marry her."
My chest hurt.
I listened to my husband breathe into a microphone hidden beneath his wedding jacket.
"I am marrying Hannah."
For half a second, relief moved through me.
Then Emily asked, "Because you love her or because everyone is already here?"
A long silence followed.
Daniel's answer was barely above a whisper.
"Both."
Rebecca stopped the recording.
"Do you want to continue?"
I nodded.
She pressed play again.
Emily's voice shook.
"Then look at me and tell me there is nothing left."
Daniel said nothing.
"Tell me you do not love me."
Still nothing.
"Say it."
Daniel finally spoke.
"I love Hannah."
"That is not what I asked."
"Emily."
"Do you love me?"
The silence lasted seven seconds.
I counted every one.
Then Daniel said, "I don't know what part of me still does."
My eyes filled with tears.
Rebecca reached toward the laptop again.
I stopped her.
"Keep playing it."
Emily started crying.
Not theatrically.
Not loudly.
The sound was worse because it was quiet.
"I ended things with Mark."
"I know."
"Because of you."
"I did not ask you to do that."
"You told me not to marry him."
"Because you were talking about me while planning a marriage to him."
"And what are you doing?"
Daniel had no answer.
Emily laughed through her tears.
"Exactly."
Then came a rustle of fabric.
She must have touched him.
"Come with me."
Daniel's voice sharpened.
"No."
"Then call off the wedding."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I am not blowing up Hannah's life in front of two hundred people."
My stomach dropped.
Emily said, "So you will blow it up privately?"
Daniel answered, "I will tell her the truth."
"When?"
"After."
"After you marry her."
"Yes."
I closed my eyes.
That was not panic.
That was a plan.
Emily's voice became cold.
"Then come see me tonight."
"I cannot."
"You can."
"It is my wedding night."
"Then prove I mean nothing and never come."
Daniel was silent.
Emily continued.
"If you do not come, I will understand."
Another silence.
Then Daniel said, "Where are you staying?"
I stopped breathing.
Emily gave the name of the Wentworth Hotel.
Daniel said, "Go there."
"Are you coming?"
He exhaled slowly.
"I will talk to you after the reception."
The room around me disappeared.
He had known.
Before the ceremony.
Before my vows.
Before the photographs.
Before he danced with my mother.
Before he whispered that he loved me during our first dance.
He had already promised Emily he would come to her hotel.
The midnight phone calls had not created the decision.
They had only activated it.
I thought I had given Daniel an ultimatum in our kitchen.
In reality, he had made his choice hours earlier.
The audio continued.
Emily asked, "Promise?"
Daniel said, "I said I will talk to you."
"Tonight."
"Tonight."
Footsteps moved away.
Then there was silence.
Less than a minute later, one of Daniel's groomsmen entered.
"Everything okay?"
Daniel answered immediately.
"Yeah."
His voice sounded normal.
"Just a vendor issue."
I covered my mouth.
Another lie.
Effortless.
Practiced.
Then the audio captured Daniel laughing with his friends.
Twenty minutes later, music began.
My ceremony music.
I could hear guests shifting in their chairs.
Someone whispered that the bride was coming.
Then Daniel's breathing changed.
On the recording, it became shallow and unsteady.
That was the moment he saw me at the end of the aisle.
That was the moment I had believed his tears proved everything.
The recording captured him whispering to his best man.
"Oh God."
Chris laughed softly.
"Too late to run now."
Daniel answered with a sentence I had never heard before.
"I know."
May you like
There was nothing funny in his voice.
"That's the problem."
