CHAPTER 4 – The Bride Who Walked Back From the Dead
The ballroom exploded into panic.
Guests scrambled away from the altar.
Luxury crystal glasses shattered across the marble floor.
Television crews abandoned their positions and rushed toward the mysterious woman standing on the grand staircase.
Alexander Blackwood didn't move.
He simply stared.
His lips slowly parted.
"...Victoria?"
The woman smiled.
Not warmly.
Not lovingly.
Like someone who had waited years for this exact moment.
"I wondered if you'd recognize me."
Emily looked from Alexander to Victoria, unable to breathe.
The woman standing before her wasn't a ghost.
She was flesh and blood.
And she looked exactly like the bride in the photographs.
The bride who had supposedly drowned.
Alexander recovered first.
His expression hardened.
"Impossible."
"I watched you die."
The sentence escaped before he could stop himself.
Silence.
A deafening silence.
Every guest heard it.
Emily's heart pounded.
"You... watched her die?"
Alexander immediately realized his mistake.
"I meant..."
"I watched the rescue team recover her body."
But the damage had already been done.
Reporters exchanged shocked glances.
Several cameras zoomed in on his face.
Millions of viewers watching the livestream flooded the comments with the same question:
How could he know what happened if no body had ever been publicly identified?
Victoria slowly descended the staircase.
Each step echoed through the ballroom.
"I didn't drown, Alexander."
"I survived."
She stopped only a few feet away from him.
"I remember everything."
"The yacht."
"The storm."
"The champagne."
"And the moment you whispered..."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"No one will ever believe you."
Alexander's face lost all color.
Emily felt the room spin.
"What is she talking about?"
Victoria reached into her handbag.
The bodyguards instantly raised their weapons.
She ignored them.
Instead, she placed a small waterproof flash drive on the altar.
"I've carried this for three years."
"It contains the yacht's security recordings."
"The GPS route."
"The captain's audio."
"And one conversation..."
She paused.
"The conversation where my husband ordered the engines to stop."
Gasps rippled through the ballroom.
Olivia stepped forward.
"Alexander..."
"Please tell me she's lying."
He didn't answer.
Instead, he quietly glanced toward his chief of security.
That single look was enough.
The guard slipped a hand inside his jacket.
Victoria noticed.
"So..."
"You still solve your problems the same way."
Emily followed Victoria's gaze.
The guard wasn't reaching for handcuffs.
He was reaching for a pistol.
Before anyone could react—
BANG!
A gunshot echoed through the ballroom.
Women screamed.
Guests threw themselves to the floor.
Emily instinctively covered her head.
But when she looked up...
Victoria was still standing.
Untouched.
The bullet had struck one of the crystal columns behind her.
The shooter lay pinned to the ground.
Detective Samuel Hayes had tackled him just before he fired a second shot.
Police officers rushed in from every entrance.
Not private security.
Real police.
Their commander held up a warrant.
"Alexander Blackwood!"
"You are under investigation for conspiracy, attempted murder, kidnapping, and obstruction of justice."
The ballroom erupted.
Alexander smiled.
To everyone's surprise...
He began laughing.
Not the laugh of a frightened man.
The laugh of someone who knew a secret.
"You think you've won?"
He looked first at Victoria.
Then at Emily.
Finally at Detective Hayes.
"You've all made the same mistake."
He slowly reached into the inside pocket of his tuxedo.
Every officer pointed their weapons.
"Don't move!"
Alexander ignored them.
Instead of a gun...
He pulled out a single folded photograph.
He handed it to Emily.
Her hands trembled as she unfolded it.
The color drained from her face.
It was a recent photograph.
Taken less than twenty-four hours ago.
Her father...
Alive.
Tied to a chair.
Behind him, a digital clock displayed the time.
And on the wall, written in red paint, were six chilling words:
"SAVE ME BEFORE MIDNIGHT... OR I'M DEAD."
Alexander smiled one last time.
Then whispered words that froze everyone in the room.
"You've been chasing yesterday's crime..."
May you like
"...while today's victim is still waiting."
End of Chapter 4...
