Chapter 1 - The Bride Who Hit My Daughter
The first thing Daniel noticed was Sophie’s cheek.
Not Amanda’s wedding gown.
Not the scattered flowers.
Not the vanity chair knocked sideways.
His daughter’s cheek.
Red.
Sophie stood behind him in her pale pink flower girl dress, gripping his trouser leg while tears ran down her face.
Daniel looked at Amanda.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Amanda’s chest rose rapidly beneath the fitted white bodice.
“She ruined everything!”
Daniel glanced around.
Nothing looked ruined.
The veil remained intact.
The makeup station was messy, but wedding preparation was always messy.
One cosmetic bottle had fallen.
Flowers lay near the vanity.
That was all.
Then Daniel noticed strands of Sophie’s fine brown hair caught in Amanda’s fingers.
His expression changed.
“Amanda.”
She released them immediately.
“She took something.”
“So you hit her?”
“I didn’t hit her.”
Sophie whimpered behind him.
Daniel slowly looked at Amanda.
“I watched you.”
Amanda’s face changed.
Only slightly.
“I panicked.”
“You slapped a twenty-month-old child.”
“She stole from me.”
“She’s a baby.”
“She knew exactly what she was doing.”
Daniel stared.
That sentence frightened him.
Not because it was cruel.
Because Amanda believed it.
Sophie tugged Daniel’s shirt.
He crouched immediately.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Her tiny hands opened the flower basket.
Inside lay rose petals.
Then something metallic.
Sophie picked it up.
A gold pendant.
She placed it in Daniel’s palm.
“Daddy… I found this in Amanda’s room.”
Amanda went white.
Daniel opened the pendant.
Inside was a miniature portrait of a woman.
His heart stopped.
Rachel.
His late wife.
Sophie’s mother.
Daniel looked up so slowly Amanda stepped backward before he spoke.
“Where did you get this?”
Amanda shook her head.
“It isn’t what you think.”
Daniel stared at the portrait.
Rachel looked about thirty in the photograph.
She wore her hair loose.
He recognized the blue dress.
Their fifth anniversary.
Daniel himself had taken the picture.
But that was not what terrified him.
He recognized the pendant.
He had given it to Rachel.
One year after they married.
Rachel wore it constantly.
After the fatal crash, police told Daniel almost none of her jewelry survived the fire.
Her wedding ring was recovered.
The pendant was not.
Daniel looked at Amanda.
“That belonged to Rachel.”
Amanda’s eyes moved toward the closed double doors.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“It’s a replica.”
“There was one.”
“Daniel.”
“One.”
He stepped closer.
“I had it made.”
Amanda backed toward the vanity.
“You’re upset.”
“I’m asking where you got my dead wife’s necklace.”
“It isn’t hers.”
Sophie clung to Daniel’s leg.
Amanda looked toward the child.
The hatred in her face lasted less than a second.
Daniel saw it.
Something changed permanently.
He picked Sophie up.
“Wedding’s off.”
Amanda stared.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel.”
He walked toward the door.
Amanda grabbed his sleeve.
“You cannot walk out over a necklace.”
Daniel looked at her hand.
She released him.
“I’m walking out because I opened a door and watched you pull my daughter’s hair and slap her.”
Amanda swallowed.
“She stole from me.”
“And because you care more about getting this pendant back than explaining why you have it.”
Amanda’s composure cracked.
“If you leave right now, you’ll destroy everything.”
Daniel looked around the expensive bridal suite.
White flowers.
Champagne.
Designer gown.
Hundreds of guests waiting downstairs.
“Then everything is destroyed.”
He opened the door.
Amanda whispered,
“You have no idea what Rachel did.”
Daniel stopped.
He turned.
“What?”
Amanda’s face changed again.
Regret.
She had said too much.
Daniel walked back.
“What did Rachel do?”
Amanda folded her arms.
“Nothing.”
“You just said I have no idea what she did.”
“I’m angry.”
“You told me you never knew Rachel.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how would you know what she did?”
Silence.
Daniel felt the floor shift beneath him.
Amanda had entered his life nine months earlier.
They met at a fundraising gala.
She claimed she knew Daniel only by reputation.
She said she had followed the story of Rachel’s tragic death through mutual acquaintances.
Nothing more.
Now she stood in her wedding dress with Rachel’s pendant hidden in her room.
Daniel said,
“Tell me the truth.”
Amanda’s eyes filled.
“You’re choosing a dead woman over me.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She’s gone.”
“So why are you scared of her necklace?”
Amanda said nothing.
Daniel carried Sophie into the hallway.
Rebecca approached in formal clothes.
“What happened?”
“Take Sophie.”
Rebecca saw the red cheek.
Her expression changed.
“What did she do?”
Daniel handed Sophie over.
“Keep her with you.”
“Daniel.”
“Do not let Amanda near her.”
Rebecca immediately nodded.
Daniel turned back toward the bridal suite.
Amanda was shutting drawers.
Fast.
He walked inside.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
Daniel noticed her phone.
Amanda grabbed it.
He did not try taking it.
Instead he looked at the pendant.
Then at Sophie’s flower basket.
“What was Sophie doing in here?”
Amanda hesitated.
“She wandered in.”
“She was with the flower girls.”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel walked toward the vanity.
A drawer remained open.
Inside were scissors.
Makeup.
Two passports.
Daniel froze.
Amanda noticed.
He pulled them out.
One belonged to Amanda Hale.
The second belonged to a woman named Allison Mercer.
Same photograph.
Daniel stared.
Amanda lunged.
He stepped back.
“What is this?”
“Give me that.”
“Who is Allison Mercer?”
Amanda’s face went blank.
Daniel looked at the date of birth.
Different by four years.
Different state.
Same face.
He heard Rebecca calling his name from the hall.
Amanda whispered,
“You need to put that back.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what you’re looking at.”
Daniel stared at the passport.
Then the pendant.
Then the woman he had nearly married.
May you like
For the first time, he asked the question he should have asked months ago.
“Who are you?”
