Chapter 3
I stared at the tiny note until the letters blurred.
CHECK THE MIRROR.
Nia's handwriting.
I knew it instantly.
She made the same unusual loop whenever she wrote the letter R.
I had seen it on birthday cards, grocery lists, and hundreds of little notes she left around our apartment.
This was hers.
I looked at Lily.
"Where exactly did you find this?"
She pointed toward the damaged flower wall.
"Under the chair."
I turned toward Evelyn.
"Did Nia leave this?"
Her face changed.
"I don't know."
"Think."
She closed her eyes.
"When they brought me into the wedding hall, they made me walk through a dressing room."
"What dressing room?"
"The private bridal suite."
I remembered the suite.
Nia had reserved it months earlier.
It had an enormous dressing mirror surrounded by lights and a separate entrance from the service hallway.
I turned toward the police officer.
"Can we check that room?"
She nodded.
"We'll examine it."
I handed her the note and explained why I believed it came from Nia.
An investigator accompanied us to the bridal suite.
The door was locked.
Our wedding coordinator provided a key.
When it opened, the smell of roses and expensive perfume rushed toward me.
I felt sick.
This was where Nia was supposed to prepare for the happiest day of our lives.
Her makeup brushes sat neatly on the counter.
A white silk robe hung beside the closet.
Our engagement photograph rested near the mirror.
But the room looked wrong.
One drawer stood open.
A chair had been overturned.
And beneath the vanity lay a broken fingernail.
I recognized the pale-pink polish.
Nia had chosen it three days earlier.
I had held her hand while she showed me.
"Too simple?" she asked.
I kissed her fingers.
"Perfect."
Now that broken nail lay on the floor of an empty dressing room.
I had to grip the doorway.
The investigator photographed the scene.
Then she carefully examined the mirror.
At first, nothing appeared unusual.
But when she moved a lamp, I noticed a small gap behind the decorative frame.
"Wait."
I pointed.
"Right there."
The investigator examined the edge.
The mirror had been mounted over a recessed storage compartment.
Inside was a small envelope.
My name was written across the front.
My knees nearly buckled.
The investigator photographed it before opening it carefully.
Inside were three pages and a memory card.
The first page contained a handwritten message.
"Marcus, if you're reading this, something happened before I could tell you the truth."
My heart pounded.
I kept reading.
"I discovered that my mother's death was a lie. She contacted me two weeks ago and claimed she wanted to explain everything."
I closed my eyes.
Two weeks.
Nia had been carrying this secret for two weeks.
And I hadn't noticed.
The letter continued.
"At first, I wanted to believe her. I wanted answers about why she abandoned me. But when I met her, she asked questions about our wedding, our finances, and your family."
My stomach tightened.
"She knew things she shouldn't have known."
I stared at the next sentence.
"Someone has been watching us."
I looked toward the investigator.
She was already calling for additional support.
The letter described unfamiliar cars parked near our apartment.
Strange messages.
A woman who followed Nia outside her workplace.
Then came the sentence that broke me.
"Marcus, I was going to tell you everything tonight. I didn't want my past to destroy our wedding."
I pressed my hand against my chest.
Nia had been trying to protect me.
And now she was missing.
The investigator examined the second page.
It contained copies of financial records.
Several accounts were listed under the name of Nia's late father, Samuel Whitmore.
I had never seen them before.
The third page contained a photograph of a large house.
Its address was written beneath it.
A property outside the city.
My heart jumped.
"Could she be there?"
The investigator took down the address.
"We'll have officers check it."
I wanted to run out and drive there myself.
But she warned me not to interfere.
If Nia was being held against her will, approaching an unknown property could put her in greater danger.
I knew she was right.
That didn't make waiting any easier.
We returned to the wedding hall.
Most guests had been moved to a separate area.
The police were collecting witness statements.
Celeste had been taken for further questioning.
Evelyn sat with a blanket around her shoulders.
Lily was beside my older sister, Danielle.
Danielle had arrived late for the ceremony after taking a work call.
Now she looked devastated.
Her daughter had been the one who discovered everything.
I approached them.
Lily immediately reached for me.
"Uncle Marcus!"
I picked her up.
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Did you find Aunt Nia?"
"Not yet."
Her face fell.
I kissed her forehead.
"But you helped us find something important."
She looked at me.
"Was I bad for breaking the flowers?"
I nearly cried.
"No, sweetheart."
"Everybody was yelling."
"I know."
Her lower lip trembled.
"I heard the lady crying. Nobody believed me."
I held her tighter.
"I'm sorry."
She looked up.
"Do you believe me now?"
I swallowed.
"Yes."
She rested her head against my shoulder.
For the first time that day, I allowed myself to cry.
Danielle touched my arm.
"Marcus, Nia is strong."
I nodded.
"I know."
"She's going to fight."
I looked toward the empty altar.
"Then I have to fight too."
An hour later, a detective named Renee Jackson arrived.
She was a calm woman in her forties with sharp eyes and a direct manner.
She asked me to explain everything from the beginning.
I told her about Celeste.
The disguise.
Evelyn.
Victor's phone call.
The hidden note.
And the documents behind the mirror.
Detective Jackson listened carefully.
Then she asked a question that surprised me.
"Mr. Carter, who arranged the private paperwork for your wedding?"
I frowned.
"Our wedding planner handled most arrangements."
"Who selected the planner?"
"Nia did."
"Did she choose her personally?"
I hesitated.
"Actually, no."
I remembered a conversation from three months earlier.
Nia told me a woman named Rochelle had offered us a significant discount through a family connection.
We were trying to keep our wedding expenses reasonable.
The offer seemed generous.
I looked at the detective.
"Rochelle."
"Last name?"
"Bennett."
The detective wrote it down.
Then she showed me a photograph.
It was the woman in the burgundy evening gown.
The same woman Lily had identified.
My stomach dropped.
"That's her."
Detective Jackson nodded.
"We've been trying to locate her."
I stared at the photograph.
"Who is she?"
The detective hesitated.
"She has used several names."
My heart pounded.
"Is she connected to Victor?"
"We're investigating that."
Then her phone rang.
She stepped aside.
I watched her expression change as she listened.
When she returned, her face was serious.
"Mr. Carter, officers checked the address in Nia's letter."
I stood.
"Was she there?"
The detective shook her head.
"The house was empty."
My heart sank.
"But they found something."
"What?"
She took a breath.
"Evidence that someone had recently been held inside."
I closed my eyes.
Then she continued.
"And a wedding photograph."
I stared at her.
"What wedding photograph?"
She looked directly at me.
"A photograph of you and Nia from your engagement party."
My stomach tightened.
The detective's voice became quieter.
"Someone had drawn a red circle around your face."
I stopped breathing.
May you like
And beneath the photograph, according to the detective, someone had written a single sentence.
"HE IS THE KEY."
