Chapter 3 - What the Camera Caught
I handed Noah to Rachel.
He protested immediately.
“I’m right here,” I told him. “You can see me.”
Rachel sat with him on the bench while Ben turned the camera screen toward me.
The footage began with Claire beside the cake table.
Noah came into view from the left.
“Daddy!”
Claire put out her arm.
“Wait.”
He tried to look around her.
“Daddy said we could dance.”
“I said wait.”
He stopped.
That mattered. I watched him stop.
He didn’t touch the table. He didn’t bump her. He didn’t reach for the cake.
Claire glanced toward me. I was laughing at something the photographer’s assistant had said.
Then she lifted the top tier from its support plate.
“Maybe this will get your attention.”
She tipped it over Noah’s head.
Deliberately.
The camera shook. Ben had started toward them.
I watched my son disappear under white frosting.
Then I shut my eyes.
“Send me that,” I said.
Claire reached for the camera.
“You don’t have permission to show—”
Ben stepped away.
“Don’t touch my equipment.”
Her voice sharpened.
“It was supposed to be funny.”
Nobody answered.
“My friends were doing cake pictures. He got in the way.”
I looked at her.
“He stopped when you told him.”
She opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Vivian touched my arm.
“She’s exhausted. Weddings bring out the worst in people.”
I pulled away.
“Rachel, take Noah to your car.”
Claire suddenly started crying.
Not when she’d seen Noah covered in cake. Not when he’d flinched.
Now.
“Daniel, please. We just got married.”
I took off my wedding ring.
The skin beneath it was still pale from where the jeweler had checked the fit that morning.
I put it on the hallway table.
“We’ll handle the paperwork later.”
As Rachel carried Noah toward the exit, he lifted his head.
“Daddy, my bear.”
“Bear’s at home. We’ll get him.”
Claire stopped crying.
For one second, she looked almost frightened.
Then she said, “You shouldn’t take him there tonight.”
I turned back.
“Why?”
Her answer came too quickly.
“Because he’ll be upset.”
My phone buzzed.
May you like
A message from our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Alvarez.
I’m sorry to interrupt your wedding. Please call me about something I heard at your house last Tuesday.
