If she does, I’ll say she’s confused from the medication.”
At the wedding, that sentence now played for everyone to hear.
David lunged toward the audiovisual table.
Daniel blocked him again.
“Get out of my way,” David snapped.
“No.”
“This has nothing to do with you.”
Daniel glanced at Lauren.
“You stole money to pay for my wedding.
It has everything to do with us.”
David shoved him.
One of the officers caught David’s arm before he could strike again and turned him toward the wall.
“That is enough.
Put your hands behind your back.”
Panic erased the last of David’s composure.
“You cannot arrest me because my wife sent an edited video!”
“You are being detained while we investigate two assaults witnessed by this room.”
“I didn’t touch the child.”
“You struck your wife.”
“She threatened my mother!”
The officer secured the handcuffs.
David looked at me over his shoulder.
“Tell them it was an accident.”
I remembered how many times he had asked me to rewrite reality for him.
The cabinet door had hit my shoulder.
His grip had only left bruises because I pulled away.
His mother had not insulted me; she had been stressed.
Mia was sensitive.
I was dramatic.
Nothing was ever what I knew it had been.
This time, two hundred witnesses had seen the truth.
“It was not an accident,” I said.
Evelyn rushed toward the officer.
“You cannot take my son.
Do you know who our family is?”
Lauren stepped between them.
“Stop, Mom.”
“You stay out of this.”
“You made me part of it when you used stolen money for my wedding.”
Evelyn’s voice dropped.
“Everything I did was for you.”
Lauren looked around the ballroom at the flowers, the chandeliers, and the towering cake.
“I would have married Daniel in a courthouse before taking one dollar from Mia.”
She reached up, removed her jeweled veil, and placed it on the table.
“The reception is over.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“You will regret humiliating me.”
Lauren’s eyes filled, but her voice stayed steady.
“No.
I regret how long we helped you humiliate everyone else.”
While the officers collected witness names, Elena guided Mia and me into a quiet bridal room.
A nurse who had attended the wedding cleaned my lip and checked Mia’s knees.
Mia did not speak until the noise outside faded.
“Was the wedding mine?” she asked.
I knelt in front of her.
