Chapter 10 - the camera at the altar
The wedding morning arrived beneath a clear blue sky.
The cathedral bells rang across the city.
Hundreds of guests filled the pews.
News cameras waited outside because Adrian Vale’s marriage had become one of the year’s most discussed social events.
Lily sat in a dressing room wearing her cream-colored flower-girl dress.
Mrs. Finch guarded the door.
Adrian had instructed her not to let Lily enter the cathedral until the ceremony was over.
He believed he was protecting her.
Lily believed Ruth Bell would be killed if she remained where she was.
She placed the camcorder beneath her coat and opened the bathroom window.
The drop to the garden was not far.
She climbed down a drainpipe, crossed the cathedral courtyard and entered through the choir door.
Inside, the ceremony had already begun.
Celeste stood at the altar.
Adrian faced her.
Margaret sat in the front row beside Julian.
Ruth Bell sat behind them wearing a dark blue hat.
Lily began moving down the side aisle.
Julian saw her first.
His face changed.
He rose, but Margaret caught his sleeve.
The priest asked Adrian to repeat his vows.
Lily ran.
“Daddy, don’t marry her! I recorded everything!”
The cathedral erupted in whispers.
Adrian hurried toward her.
Celeste followed.
When Lily played the recording, the guests heard every word.
Celeste’s plan.
Julian’s warning.
The threat against Lily’s identity.
Then the unknown third voice.
“Make sure Ruth Bell never reaches the altar.”
Adrian looked toward the front row.
Ruth rose.
“Forgive me,” she whispered.
The lights went out.
Someone collided with Lily.
The camcorder almost fell, but Adrian caught it.
A scream came from the front row.
When the emergency lights activated, Ruth was gone.
Julian was on the floor beside his chair.
Margaret’s silver glove was torn.
A side window had been shattered.
Adrian found the locket beneath Ruth’s seat and opened it.
Inside was the photograph of baby Lily with the blue-eyed woman.
Her mother is alive.
Police sealed the cathedral.
Guests were questioned one by one.
Celeste was taken into a private chapel, where investigators searched her bag.
They found the altered trust agreement, two passports under different names and a key to the cathedral archive.
Julian attempted to leave through the clergy entrance.
He was stopped outside.
Adrian remained with Lily beside the altar.
“You knew,” she said.
“I knew Celeste was planning something. I did not know Ruth would be taken.”
“You locked me in the dressing room.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“No one tells me anything because they say they’re keeping me safe.”
Adrian looked at his daughter.
“You’re right.”
He took her hand.
“No more secrets.”
Margaret approached them.
Blood marked the side of her face where broken glass had cut her, but the injury was small.
“The person who took Ruth knew the cathedral’s old passages,” she said.
“Who has access?” Adrian asked.
“Vale family members, senior church officials and Cross and Bell attorneys.”
“Julian?”
“He was beside me when the lights went out.”
“He could have arranged it.”
“Yes.”
Celeste’s voice came from behind them.
“It wasn’t Julian.”
Two investigators held her arms.
Adrian turned.
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No. But if you take me away now, Ruth will be dead before sunset.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who took her?”
Celeste looked at Margaret.
“The same person who ordered Evelyn’s car off the road.”
Margaret’s face became rigid.
May you like
Celeste continued.
“And the same woman Adrian has called Mother all his life.”
