Chapter 5 - Vanessa Had Been Building A Cage Around Her
I finally let Ethan into the room.
The second he stepped inside, Sarah’s shoulders went rigid. He stopped several feet away, like he already knew he’d lost the right to come closer.
“She told you?” he asked.
“She told me enough,” I said.
Ethan looked at Sarah, not me. “I never thought it would get this bad.”
I almost hit him again.
“Then what exactly did you think was happening?”
His jaw tightened. “Vanessa said they were clashing. She said Sarah was overwhelmed, hormonal, emotional—”
Sarah gave a short, broken laugh.
“That’s what she told you?”
Ethan turned to her helplessly. “Every time I tried to talk to you alone, she was already there. Every time I asked why you looked upset, she said you were tired. You stopped taking my calls.”
“She took my phone,” Sarah said quietly.
That shut him up.
“She started by controlling the small things,” Sarah went on. “Who drove me to the clinic. What I wore. Who I sat next to at dinner. Then it got worse. If I disagreed with her, she’d grab my arms. If I told her I wanted out after the baby was born, she’d say I owed her everything.”
“Owed her?” I said.
Sarah looked at me then, and for the first time there was anger under the fear.
“She said the baby wasn’t the only thing depending on this wedding.”
That sentence lodged itself in my mind immediately.
Not the only thing.
So the wedding itself mattered for some reason beyond love, appearances, or even Ethan.
“What else was depending on it?” I asked.
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know. But I heard her on the phone two nights ago. She said, ‘Once the vows are done, nobody can stop me.’”
Ethan’s face went white.
Before either of us could say another word, one of the older female guests knocked on the door to say that Vanessa had gone missing from the ballroom.
And at the exact same time, my phone lit up with a message from a number I knew by heart.
My best friend, Victor Hale.
May you like
We need to talk now. About Vanessa.
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