Chapter 1 - The Pendant That Stopped the Wedding
Amanda already had Sophie by the hair when the bridal-suite door opened.
The twenty-month-old girl stood beside the vanity in her pale-pink flower-girl dress, her little flower basket hanging crooked from one arm. Tears streaked her flushed face as Amanda yanked her head backward and struck her across the cheek.
“Tell me where you hid it!”
Sophie cried out.
The double doors flew open.
Daniel stopped for less than a second.
Then he moved.
Sophie saw him and stumbled away from Amanda.
“Dad!”
Daniel crossed the room, pulled his daughter behind him, and turned on the woman he was supposed to marry in less than thirty minutes.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Amanda snatched up her wedding bouquet and pressed it against the front of her dress.
Her veil was still perfectly pinned. Her makeup was untouched. Nothing in the room looked damaged except Sophie.
“She ruined everything!”
Daniel’s eyes dropped to his daughter’s cheek.
Then to Amanda’s flawless veil.
Something in his face changed.
He ripped the bouquet from Amanda’s hands and hurled it back at her.
The flowers struck Amanda across the chest and face before scattering over the polished floor.
She stumbled backward.
Daniel immediately stepped in front of Sophie again.
No one spoke.
Then he felt Sophie tugging at his shirt.
She crouched beside her flower basket, opened it with trembling fingers, and pulled out something small.
A pendant.
She placed it in Daniel’s palm.
“Daddy… I found this in Amanda’s room.”
Daniel looked down.
Inside the pendant was a miniature portrait of a young woman.
Long brown hair.
Gray-green eyes.
A narrow smile that felt strangely familiar.
Daniel could not place her.
But something about the photograph made his stomach tighten.
He slowly raised his eyes.
Amanda was staring at the pendant.
The anger had vanished from her face.
Her breathing turned shallow.
For the first time since Daniel had known her, Amanda looked genuinely terrified.
Not embarrassed that he had caught her hurting Sophie.
Not frightened that the wedding might be canceled.
Terrified of the woman inside the pendant.
And Daniel understood one thing before he understood anything else.
May you like
Amanda had been searching Sophie for this pendant before he ever entered the room.
Whatever she feared had begun long before that morning.
