Chapter 2 — The Perfect Accident
Police sirens approached the hotel.
Daniel heard them and immediately changed tactics.
His anger vanished.
His shoulders sagged, and his expression became wounded.
“Olivia, listen to me,” he pleaded. “I was trying to help you sleep.”
Several guests shouted in outrage.
Olivia did not move.
“You poured a lethal anesthetic into my cake to help me sleep?”
“I didn’t know it was lethal.”
“Then why did you run?”
Daniel looked toward Rachel.
“She told me it was harmless.”
Rachel’s head snapped up.
“You lying bastard.”
The two officers separated them as Detective Elena Ruiz entered the ballroom with uniformed police.
Ruiz was compact, calm and observant. She glanced once at the cake, once at Sophie’s phone and once at the shattered champagne glass on the floor.
“Nobody leaves,” she announced.
Daniel protested loudly.
Rachel said nothing.
Detective Ruiz asked Sophie to send every photograph and video to the police immediately. Sophie complied, but when she opened the images, she noticed something strange.
In the background of one photograph, a man in a gray hotel uniform stood near the service corridor.
He was watching Daniel and Rachel.
Sophie zoomed in.
The man’s face was partially hidden, but the tattoo on his wrist was visible—a black crown split down the middle.
She showed Ruiz.
The detective’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you know him?”
“No.”
Ruiz called the hotel manager.
The manager examined the photograph and shook his head.
“That man doesn’t work here.”
Across the room, Daniel’s face tightened.
Ruiz noticed.
“Mr. Cross,” she said, “who is he?”
Daniel remained silent.
Meanwhile, officers searched Daniel’s jacket and found a folded document in the inside pocket.
It was a life-insurance confirmation letter.
The policy insured Olivia for five million dollars.
Daniel was the sole beneficiary.
The policy had been finalized three weeks earlier.
Olivia stared at the paper.
“I never signed this.”
Detective Ruiz inspected the signature.
“It appears someone signed your name.”
Rachel suddenly gave a broken laugh.
“You still don’t see it, do you?”
Daniel shouted at her to be quiet.
Rachel ignored him.
“He didn’t just want the money.”
She looked at Olivia with tears running down her face.
“He needed your death to look natural because he had already promised your company to someone else.”
Olivia froze.
“My company?”
Rachel nodded.
“Daniel has been selling it behind your back.”
Then every light in the ballroom went out.
A woman screamed.
May you like
A door slammed.
And when the emergency lights came on, Rachel was lying beside the wedding cake with blood running down her neck.
