Chapter 2
For three seconds, I couldn't hear anything.
Not the screaming guests.
Not the approaching footsteps.
Not even Lily crying beside me.
All I could hear was Celeste's voice.
"If I tell you, they'll kill her."
I grabbed her shoulders.
"Who's going to kill Nia?"
Celeste shook her head.
"Please. Not here."
I felt my anger rising.
"You stood at an altar wearing my fiancée's face. You let me believe I was about to marry her. And now you're telling me she's in danger?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I didn't have a choice."
"You had a choice every second you stood beside me!"
Two security guards rushed toward us.
I released Celeste.
"Don't let her leave."
One guard positioned himself near the main exit.
The other contacted the police while our wedding coordinator tried to move guests away from the scene.
Lily clung to my leg.
"Uncle Marcus?"
I crouched immediately.
Her entire body was shaking.
"Sweetheart, look at me."
"Is Aunt Nia dead?"
The question nearly destroyed me.
"No," I said.
I wanted to believe it.
More than anything.
"We're going to find her."
Lily began crying harder.
"I heard someone crying behind the flowers. I told the lady in the red dress, but she said I was imagining things."
I looked toward the guests.
"What lady?"
Lily pointed.
A woman in a burgundy evening gown was moving quickly toward the side exit.
Evelyn saw her.
"That's the woman who brought me here!"
I stood.
"Stop her!"
The security guard turned.
But before he reached the exit, the woman disappeared through the service corridor.
I started after her.
Then Evelyn grabbed my wrist.
"Marcus, Nia needs you."
I stopped.
She was right.
Chasing someone through a crowded building wouldn't help if Nia was hidden somewhere else.
I turned toward Celeste.
"Where is my fiancée?"
Celeste stared at the floor.
I stepped closer.
"Look at me."
She slowly raised her eyes.
"I don't know exactly."
I felt sick.
"What do you mean?"
"They moved her."
"From where?"
"A private house outside Atlanta."
"Whose house?"
She shook her head.
"A man named Victor arranged everything."
"Victor who?"
"Victor Hale."
Evelyn made a strangled sound.
I looked at her.
"Do you know him?"
She nodded.
"He worked with Celeste years ago."
Celeste closed her eyes.
"That's enough."
I stared at her.
"No. We're nowhere near enough."
Police officers entered the wedding hall.
A female officer approached Celeste while another began asking witnesses to remain available.
I explained what had happened.
The officer stared at the artificial facial disguise lying near Lily's feet.
Then she looked toward the broken flower wall.
"Was the woman behind the wall injured?"
"She's conscious," I said. "But she's been restrained."
Medical personnel had already arrived.
Evelyn sat in a chair while a paramedic examined her wrists.
I watched her struggle to remain calm.
"Marcus," she whispered, "I need to tell you something."
I crouched beside her.
"What?"
"Nia called me yesterday morning."
My heart jumped.
"What did she say?"
"She sounded frightened."
"Why didn't you call me?"
"She told me not to."
I stared at her.
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
"She said somebody had contacted her about her mother."
I looked toward Celeste.
"She told me her mother was dead."
Evelyn nodded.
"That's what everyone believed."
"Why?"
Evelyn took a shaky breath.
"Because Celeste disappeared seventeen years ago after a financial scandal."
I frowned.
"What scandal?"
"Her husband was accused of stealing money from several families. Celeste vanished before investigators could question her."
I felt my stomach tighten.
"Nia's father?"
Evelyn nodded.
"He died a few years later."
I remembered Nia telling me about her father.
She said he had been a businessman who lost everything.
She rarely spoke about him.
Whenever I asked about her childhood, she became quiet.
I thought she was protecting painful memories.
Now I wondered what else she had been protecting.
Evelyn continued.
"Nia told me a woman claiming to be her mother wanted to meet."
"And she went?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"At a hotel near the airport."
I stood immediately.
"Which hotel?"
Evelyn gave me the name.
I repeated it to the officers.
They contacted investigators who began tracing Nia's last known movements.
One officer asked whether I had a recent photograph of her.
I pulled out my phone.
My lock screen showed Nia laughing beside Lily at a family picnic.
Her eyes were closed.
Her curls blew across her face.
She looked so happy.
I stared at the photograph until everything blurred.
"That's her," I whispered.
The officer took down the details.
Then Celeste began shouting.
"Victor knows about the wedding!"
Everyone turned.
She was sitting between two officers.
Her hands trembled violently.
"He told me I had to finish the ceremony before noon."
I approached.
"Why?"
She looked toward my phone.
"Because of the trust."
I froze.
"What trust?"
Celeste stared at me.
"Nia's inheritance."
I shook my head.
"Nia doesn't have an inheritance."
Celeste gave me a terrible smile.
"That's what she believes."
Evelyn struggled to stand.
"Don't listen to her!"
But Celeste continued.
"Her father left something behind. Something Victor has been trying to reach for years."
My heart pounded.
"What does that have to do with our wedding?"
Celeste looked directly at me.
"Victor needed your signature."
I stared at her.
"My signature?"
"The papers you were supposed to sign after the ceremony."
I remembered the documents our wedding coordinator had placed in a cream-colored folder.
I had assumed they were ordinary forms connected to our ceremony and honeymoon arrangements.
Nia had asked me to review them together afterward.
But someone had switched our wedding schedule that morning.
The coordinator told me my bride wanted the documents signed immediately after the vows.
I hadn't questioned it.
I looked toward the gift table.
The cream-colored folder was gone.
Then my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
I answered immediately.
"Hello?"
For a moment, there was only static.
Then I heard a woman breathing.
"Marcus?"
My heart stopped.
"Nia?"
A quiet sob came through the speaker.
"Please don't sign anything."
I gripped the phone.
"Baby, where are you?"
She began crying.
"Marcus, I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. Tell me where you are."
A man's voice interrupted.
"Enough."
There was a struggle.
Then the phone changed hands.
The man spoke calmly.
"Mr. Carter, I suggest you stop asking questions."
I felt my entire body go cold.
"Who are you?"
He laughed softly.
"You already know my name."
"Victor."
"Good. Then listen carefully."
I stared at Celeste.
She lowered her eyes.
Victor continued.
"If you want to see Nia alive, you'll do exactly what I tell you."
Then the call ended.
I stood motionless.
My wedding had become a nightmare.
My fiancée was missing.
Her supposedly dead mother was sitting in police custody.
And someone wanted me to sign documents I had never seen.
Then Lily tugged my sleeve.
"Uncle Marcus?"
I looked down.
She held something small in her hand.
A silver earring.
"I found this behind the flowers."
I recognized it immediately.
It belonged to Nia.
I had given her the earrings for our second anniversary.
But attached to the earring was a tiny folded piece of paper.
I opened it.
May you like
Three words were written inside.
"CHECK THE MIRROR."
