Chapter 1 - The Other Side of the Door
“Don't open that door. She's having a tantrum.”
Grant Holloway heard his bride, but he was watching the narrow white door behind her.
Something had scraped against it.
Then came a voice so faint he nearly missed it.
“Daddy?”
He dropped the velvet box holding Vanessa's wedding earrings.
“Where's Rose?”
Vanessa stepped in front of him, her satin dress whispering across the carpet.
“I just told you. She got upset about the flowers.”
Two hundred guests were gathering downstairs.
A string quartet was warming up beneath an arch covered in white roses.
Grant could hear the distant music through the bridal suite's open entrance.
Behind the smaller door, his daughter made a sound he had never heard before.
He reached past Vanessa.
The handle wouldn't turn.
“Unlock it.”
“Grant, you're encouraging this.”
“Now.”
She pulled a brass key from the dressing table.
He took it before she could explain.
The door opened onto a narrow service landing and three wooden steps.
Rose lay against the wall at the bottom, one white shoe missing, her small bouquet scattered around her.
Her left arm was tucked awkwardly against her stomach.
Grant was beside her before he remembered moving.
“Hey, Rosie. Daddy's here.”
Her eyes found his face.
“I didn't get her dress dirty.”
He looked at the crushed roses, then up at Vanessa.
“Call 911.”
“She fell. I was getting someone.”
“Call.”
Vanessa didn't move.
Grant pulled out his own phone.
He gave the hotel name, the suite number, and everything he could see without touching Rose's injured arm.
The dispatcher told him to keep her still.
“You're making this sound terrible,” Vanessa whispered.
Rose began to cry without making noise.
Tears slid into her hair.
“You can cry, baby,” Grant said.
“I'm right here.”
Footsteps filled the room.
A hotel employee knelt beside them while another waved the paramedics in from the hall.
Vanessa started talking fast.
New shoes.
A slippery step.
A child who wouldn't listen.
Grant heard none of it clearly.
Rose had caught his sleeve with two fingers.
“Don't make me go back.”
“You're coming with me.”
“But the wedding.”
He bent close enough for her to see him.
“There isn't going to be a wedding.”
As the paramedics brought in the stretcher, Vanessa caught his shoulder.
“You can't decide that because she tripped.”
May you like
Grant looked at the key still lying on the carpet.
“Then tell me why you locked the door.”
