Chapter 2: The Boy in the Back Who Couldn't Look Away
Nobody moved to help us.
I held Nora against my chest, her bl00d warm on my hand, and looked around that ballroom.
Two hundred people.
Not one stood up.
"She needs a doctor," I said.
My mother didn't even look at Nora.
"Lower your voice, Marissa."
I carried Nora toward the exit.
That's when Gareth's new wife, Diane, stepped in front of me.
I'd always thought she was quiet.
Gentle, even.
She wasn't.
"You're not leaving until she apologizes," Diane said.
"In front of everyone."
"She's eight years old and she's hurt."
"She's a little thief and everyone here saw it."
Nora buried her face in my neck.
I felt her shaking.
I turned back to Gareth.
"You know she didn't take it.
You know exactly what happened."
Something moved across his face.
Not guilt.
Something colder.
"Careful, Marissa," he said quietly.
"You don't want to make this worse."
That's when I noticed it — a groomsman near the back of the room.
Young.
Maybe twenty.
He hadn't touched his food.
He hadn't looked at Gareth once.
He was staring at Nora's jacket pocket.
And his face had gone completely white.
---
What that groomsman knew — and what the hotel CCTV captured just minutes before — changes everything.
May you like
Click the link below to read the full story.
What Marissa finds out next will leave you speechless.
