Chapter 2: The Video That Should Have Been Enough
I watched the video three times before I could breathe properly.
Simone had been standing near the conservatory doorway.
Her angle was perfect.
You could see Jessamine set her champagne coupe down with one deliberate hand.
You could see her glance across the room at Verity.
You could see her lips move.
Then both palms went flat against the fountain.
And she pushed.
The crash.
The chocolate.
Verity's face.
And Jessamine's smile — caught clearly, for two full seconds, before she arranged her expression into something that looked like shock.
I forwarded the video to Emory without a single word of explanation.
He didn't call back for four hours.
When he finally did, his voice was different.
Quieter.
Like something had shifted underneath him.
"I saw it," he said.
"I know."
Silence.
Then — and this is the part that turned my stomach — I heard Jessamine's voice in the background.
Low and controlled.
Coaching him.
"Tell her the angle is misleading.
Tell her anyone could misread it."
Emory went quiet for a moment.
Then he said exactly that.
Word for word.
I set the phone down on the table and stared at the wall.
My son had watched clear video proof of what his wife had done to his sister — and she had talked him out of believing it in under four hours.
That was when I stopped thinking about the fountain.
That was when I started thinking about Verity's fiancé, Daniel.
Because Simone had just sent me a second message.
And it had nothing to do with the party.
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What Simone revealed in that second message changed everything — and Jessamine never saw it coming.
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