Chapter 1 - The Wedding Cake
“Look at her! Happy wedding day!”
Luca's laughter echoed through the ballroom as he grabbed Jessi by the back of the neck and drove her face into the enormous wedding cake.
The top tier collapsed first.
Then the second.
Buttercream exploded across the white lace of her dress, streaked through her blonde bridal hair, and scattered over the tablecloth. Two hundred guests fell silent.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Jessi slowly lifted her head.
Cake covered her eyes.
A thin line of blood ran beneath her nose.
She didn't cry.
She didn't scream.
She simply looked at Luca.
His smirk returned.
“Smile, Jessi. Don't embarrass me.”
Behind him, his mother Wendy giggled into her champagne glass.
“She'll learn to take a joke eventually.”
Jessi wiped frosting from one eye.
Then her fingers moved toward the pearl button at her collar.
It looked ordinary.
It wasn't.
She pressed it.
Across the ballroom, Phoebe, her maid of honor, immediately reached into her clutch and pulled out a small tablet.
She tapped the screen once.
A faint electronic connection appeared.
Then Luca's voice filled every speaker in the ballroom.
“Once we're married, you'll stop acting like you can just walk away whenever you please.”
The room changed.
Guests looked at one another.
Someone lowered a champagne glass.
Someone else whispered, “Did he just say that?”
Luca's face drained of color.
“What is this?”
His amplified voice repeated through the hall.
“Turn it off!”
Phoebe didn't move.
Jessi stared directly at him.
Outside the ballroom windows, police sirens began approaching.
Luca took one step backward.
Jessi touched the blood beneath her nose.
Then she smiled.
“You've given me two hundred witnesses... and a confession.”
The ballroom doors opened.
Uniformed officers entered.
And for the first time that day, Luca realized the wedding wasn't ending.
May you like
It was beginning.
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