Chapter 4
I asked Ethan where he found the USB.
He looked at Claire.
She did not know.
That surprised both of us.
I crouched in front of him.
“Buddy, where did this come from?”
He pointed toward the bridal hallway.
“In Mommy’s bag.”
Claire frowned.
“My bag?”
Ethan nodded.
“It was under the crayons.”
Claire looked at me.
“I’ve never seen it.”
Vivian stopped moving.
There.
I saw it.
So did Adrian.
Someone had hidden the USB inside Claire’s bag.
Not Ethan.
Not Claire.
I asked my grandson:
“Why did you take it?”
He held his fingers close together.
“It blinked.”
The tiny drive had a small light.
He thought it was a toy.
Then something else happened.
He plugged it into Claire’s tablet two nights earlier because he wanted to see what it did.
The video opened.
He saw Vivian yelling at his mother.
He did not understand the words.
He understood fear.
“Mommy cried,” he whispered.
I looked at Claire.
“You knew he saw it?”
She shook her head.
Ethan continued.
“Mommy said Grandpa happy wedding.”
That hurt.
Claire had been trying to protect my wedding from her own fear.
I looked at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because every time I tried, Vivian already knew.”
Silence.
That mattered.
“What do you mean?”
Claire said she drafted messages.
Deleted them.
Tried to call me twice.
Vivian contacted her within hours both times and warned her not to interfere.
Someone was monitoring Claire.
Not simply intimidating her.
Watching.
I turned toward Vivian.
“Who?”
No answer.
Adrian looked toward the closed ballroom doors.
“If someone was monitoring Claire, they may also have known Ethan found the USB.”
Vivian’s face shifted.
I saw it.
I straightened.
“Then why didn’t they take it?”
Nobody answered.
That was the question that changed the shape of everything.
May you like
Maybe the USB had not been hidden from Vivian.
Maybe it had been hidden for me.
