Chapter 3 - The Accusation
The ballroom exploded into absolute chaos. Someone screamed, and Katherine dropped to her knees beside Flynn, slapping his cheek and pleading for him to regain consciousness. My father shouted for a doctor, even though several guests were already forcing their way through the crowd, including a cousin who was an emergency physician and one of my close friends who was a specialist cardiologist.
I remained perfectly still in my wedding gown, my bouquet dangling from my fingers like it belonged to a total stranger. Bellamy gently turned me to face him, his eyes searching mine with intensity. “Audrey, tell me exactly what you know about this,” he demanded.
I wanted to say nothing because for twenty-eight years, silence had been the only language that kept me safe. I had used silence when Flynn locked me in the cellar during thunderstorms, when he forged my name on college applications, and when he convinced our parents I was mentally unstable after I reported the missing funds from our grandmother’s estate. But tonight, saying nothing could have easily cost me my life.
I looked at Bellamy and said, “He put something into my drink on purpose.” His face changed instantly. Bellamy was never a dramatic man, but his jaw tightened and his shoulders straightened into something exact and dangerous. “Did anyone else happen to see him do it?” he asked.
“I am not sure,” I replied, “but maybe the photographer or the videographer caught it.” Bellamy turned around immediately and shouted, “Gregory, come here!” Our videographer, Gregory, looked up from near the dessert table while still holding his camera.
“Do not delete a single second of that footage,” Bellamy warned. Gregory nodded with wide eyes and said, “Understood, I will protect the files.”
On the floor, Flynn groaned as his eyelids fluttered open. The doctor checked his pulse and told someone to call for an ambulance. Katherine cried even louder, but I noticed she did not seem surprised enough by the situation. My father marched toward me with rage contorting his face. “What did you do to your brother?” he yelled.
I almost laughed at the predictability of it. His son had just collapsed after attempting to poison me, and yet the first accusation was still aimed at me. Bellamy stepped firmly in front of me and said, “William, you need to back up right now.”
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“This is a private family matter,” my father snapped back. Bellamy stared him down and replied, “No, this is a clear case of attempted poisoning at our own wedding.” The words hit the room like a sharp knife falling onto stone. My mother gasped in shock, asking, “How dare you say such a horrible thing about your brother?”
I lifted my hand and pointed clearly toward the table. “My glass is sitting right there, and Flynn’s glass is empty beside his chair. He switched his own fate the moment he assumed I would be too stupid to notice his actions.” My mother opened her mouth to argue, but for the first time, she had no ready sentence to silence me.
