Chapter 2 - THE EVIDENCE THEY WANTED BURIED
Surgeons repaired the fracture around my eye that night.
They could not promise how much vision would return.
Wyatt sat beside my hospital bed with dried dirt on his white shirt and a cut across his mouth. A police officer named Dana Brooks placed evidence bags on a counter while another officer photographed my dress.
“Preserve the brick, the dress, and Wyatt’s video,” I said.
Gregory had broken the phone, but Wyatt’s recordings automatically backed up to cloud storage. The video began during the argument inside the house and continued after he carried the phone onto the porch.
It captured Gregory saying Wyatt would lose access to the family unless he married Melanie. It captured Brenda telling my father I would “never move willingly.”
Then came the attack.
At noon, Gregory and Brenda appeared in the hospital corridor with an attorney.
Gregory tried to push past Officer Brooks. Wyatt blocked him.
“Drop the case,” my father said, “or Wyatt marries Melanie.”
Even after the brick, he still believed love could be reassigned through pressure.
Brenda pointed at my bandaged face.
“Look at yourself. Let’s see how long he wants you now.”
Wyatt moved toward her, but I gripped his wrist.
“No.”
I wanted the officer to see them exactly as they were.
Melanie arrived several minutes later with two detectives. She was not under arrest, but she had been brought in for questioning after attempting to remove a suitcase from my parents’ house.
She would not look at me.
Gregory lunged toward her. “Don’t say anything.”
The officers restrained him against the wall.
Wyatt bent close to me.
“Six witnesses are here,” he said. “One of them brought a will.”
My father stopped fighting.
His face lost its color.
Silas appeared at the far end of the corridor in a wheelchair, accompanied by a home-health aide. A worn leather folder rested across his knees.
May you like
He lifted it slightly.
“This,” he said, “is why they needed Sadie out of the way.”
