Chapter 7 - The Locked Door by the Ballroom
I wasn't in that hallway when Julian tried to open it. I was in a hospital bed with a monitor strapped around me, listening to my own breathing. But I heard what happened piece by piece that afternoon, from a nurse who let me keep my phone, from Marcus, Julian's best man, who texted me, and later from Julian himself when he finally called. I've put it together the way they told it, because I need it straight in my head.
Julian told me he left the front hallway right after the paramedics took me out. Guests were still gathered near the ballroom doors, whispering. The music had stopped. He grabbed Marcus by the arm and said they needed to check the security cameras, just like he'd said at the stairs.
Marcus knew the house better than Julian did. He'd grown up spending summers there. He led him past the ballroom, down a short service hall where the air smelled like lemon polish and cold air from a vent. At the end was a gray door with no handle, just a keypad and a small sign that said Security. Above the door, a little red light blinked.
Julian told me he stopped first and looked up. Mounted high in the corner, angled down toward the marble staircase, was a camera in a glass dome. It wasn't hidden. It stared straight at the base of the stairs, at the exact white tile where I'd been lying. He said his stomach dropped when he saw it, because it meant there was no argument about what it would have seen.
He knocked hard. No answer. Marcus knocked again and tried the door. Locked. A minute later the house manager came down the hall, a thin man in a dark suit named Peter who carried a ring of keys that didn't include that one. Julian told me Peter looked nervous, kept glancing toward the ballroom where guests were waiting.
Julian asked him to open the archive. Peter shook his head and said he couldn't. The system had been put in by the owner, Julian's uncle, and only the owner code opened the saved footage. He could see the live feed from his desk, but the locked files needed the code. He said the owner was off-site, up in Napa for the weekend, and wasn't picking up.
I could hear it in Julian's voice when he told me, how frustrated he'd been. He asked Peter if he could force it, if they could call a tech. Peter said forcing it would wipe the drive, that was how it was built. He offered to keep calling the uncle.
That was when Vanessa found them.
Marcus texted me about that part before Julian did. He said she came down the service hall still in her dress and veil, her heels loud on the floor. Her makeup was fixed again, but her eyes were red. Two bridesmaids hovered behind her near the ballroom doors.
Marcus said she didn't yell at first. She looked at the camera, then at the locked door, then at Julian. She asked what he was doing back there when the minister was waiting and a hundred people were sitting down.
Julian told her he wanted to see the tape before the vows. Just to know.
Vanessa said, low enough that Peter pretended not to hear, that checking the cameras insulted her. She said it meant he believed a housekeeper over his bride on their wedding day. She asked if he really wanted to start their marriage by treating her like a suspect.
Julian told me he stood there with his hand still on that gray door. The red light kept blinking. He could hear the organ starting up again in the ballroom, the murmur of guests being told to take their seats. Peter held his phone up and said the uncle still wasn't answering, but he'd keep trying after the ceremony.
Marcus told Julian they could wait, that the files weren't going anywhere. Vanessa took Julian's arm. She said they could sort it out later, after, when I was stable and everyone was calm.
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Julian backed down. He told me that himself, and he didn't dress it up. He said he chose not to force the lock before the vows. He let Peter walk them back toward the ballroom, the camera still blinking over the hall behind them, the footage sitting untouched inside that room.
When he called me from the dressing suite, the music was muffled behind him. He said, "It's there, Elena. The camera's right there. Nobody's watched anything yet." Then he went quiet, and I heard Vanessa calling his name.
