Chapter 8 - The Shot Beneath the Chandeliers
Emergency lights activated three seconds later.
Three seconds were enough to change everything.
Guests screamed and dropped beneath tables. Chairs overturned. Glass shattered against the marble floor.
Claire’s first thought was Noah.
She reached for him, but he was no longer beside the sofa.
“Noah!”
Daniel ran toward the ballroom.
Theodore tried to follow, but Harlan caught his arm.
“The shot came from the west balcony.”
Claire pushed through the lounge doors.
The chandeliers were dark. Red emergency strips illuminated the ballroom floor. Security officers shouted instructions no one followed.
A man lay near the altar.
Claire recognized the silver hair.
Theodore.
For one impossible second, she thought the man beside Harlan had somehow crossed the room ahead of her.
Then she realized the wounded man was not Theodore.
He was Richard Hale, vice chairman of the Mercer Foundation.
R.H.
The initials from Adrian’s notebook.
A bullet had entered his upper chest.
Claire knelt beside him.
“Call an ambulance.”
Hale gripped her wrist.
“Not Theodore,” he gasped.
“What?”
“The first child. Not Theodore’s decision.”
“Whose?”
His eyes moved toward the balcony.
Claire looked up.
A figure in a black tuxedo disappeared behind the curtain.
Julian.
Daniel saw him too.
He ran for the stairs.
Claire pressed both hands against Hale’s wound.
“Stay with me.”
Hale’s blood soaked the front of her wedding gown.
He tried to speak again.
“Margaret… switched them back.”
“What does that mean?”
“She found the other boy.”
“Daniel?”
Hale’s focus faded.
“No. Daniel was never the replacement.”
His hand fell.
Claire checked his pulse.
Nothing.
Across the ballroom, hotel security restored partial lighting.
Emily found Noah behind the wedding cake table. He had crawled beneath it when the lights failed.
Claire rushed to him.
“Are you hurt?”
He shook his head.
“I saw the man.”
“Julian?”
“No.”
Claire paused.
“Who fired the gun?”
“The groom.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“Daniel?”
Noah shook his head.
“The other groom.”
He pointed toward the ballroom’s decorative mirror wall.
In the reflection, Claire saw a man wearing a black tuxedo standing near the west exit.
From behind, he looked exactly like Daniel.
Same height.
Same build.
Same dark hair.
The man turned.
His face was partly concealed by shadow, but Claire saw enough to know that Noah was not confused.
The stranger resembled Daniel with terrifying precision.
He slipped through the exit.
Claire stood.
Daniel had followed Julian toward the upper balcony. If the stranger reached him first, no one would know which man returned.
“Stay with Emily,” Claire told Noah.
She ran toward the stairwell.
The upper balcony overlooked the ballroom. Curtains concealed lighting equipment and private viewing boxes.
Claire found Daniel near the railing.
He was alone.
“Where is Julian?”
“He entered the east passage.”
Claire stopped several feet away.
Daniel noticed her expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“What did I say to you the night you proposed?”
He stared.
“What?”
“Answer me.”
“You said the ring was too expensive.”
“What else?”
“You said if I ever lied to you, you would donate it to the emergency department.”
Claire’s breath eased.
“Someone who looks like you is in the hotel.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“The other child.”
“What?”
“Richard said Margaret switched them back.”
A noise came from behind the curtain.
They turned.
Julian emerged with a gun.
Blood ran from his shoulder.
“You were always difficult to control,” he told Daniel. “Even when they gave you the perfect life.”
Daniel moved in front of Claire.
“Who is he?”
Julian smiled.
“The man who was raised to become you.”
He lifted the gun.
Before he could fire, Noah’s bronze horse struck the side of his head.
Noah stood behind him.
“I told you to stay downstairs,” Claire said.
“He took Emily.”
Julian recovered and grabbed the boy.
Daniel lunged.
The three crashed into the balcony railing.
The old brass structure broke.
Julian fell.
He caught the lower edge with one hand.
Daniel seized his wrist.
For a moment, they hung above the screaming guests.
“Tell me where Emily is,” Daniel demanded.
Julian looked down, then smiled.
“Ask your brother.”
May you like
His fingers slipped from Daniel’s grip.
He fell onto the banquet table below.
