Chapter 12
I locked the doors before I even caught my breath.
The parking lot behind the venue was mostly empty, just a few caterer's vans and the string lights from the tent throwing amber across the asphalt. My dress filled the driver's seat, lace bunched under my thighs, tulle spilling over the center console. My feet were bare and dirty from the pavement. The air conditioner blew cold against my face and I hit the lock button twice until it made that second hard click. In the rearview, the ballroom doors were still closed. No one had followed me out.
My phone was at 17 percent. My hands were shaking so bad I had to steady the phone on the steering wheel to call.
My sister picked up on the second ring. "Hey, you should be dancing," she said. She was laughing, there was highway noise behind her.
I didn't answer right away. I could hear myself breathing.
"Jenna?" she said. "Are you okay?"
I told her. First time out loud, no cover story. I said he shoved me onto the floor in the bedroom during photos. I said I was on the rug with my hands over my head and his hand in my hair and people watched from the doorway. I said my bouquet was still on the floor next to my shoe. My voice cracked on shoe and I had to stop and swallow.
There was a beat where she just breathed. Then she swore, quiet and flat. "Where are you right now."
"In my car. Parking lot."
"Are you locked in? Is he near you?"
"Doors locked. He's still inside."
"Stay locked. I'm leaving now. I'm forty minutes out, maybe thirty if I cut through county. Don't go back inside. You hear me?"
I nodded even though she couldn't see it. "Yeah."
A tap on the passenger window made me flinch so hard my knee hit the steering column.
It was Maya, one of the bridesmaids who'd been in the doorway. She had her wrap pulled around her shoulders and her phone in her hand. I cracked the window an inch.
"Can you unlock? I just want to sit with you for a sec," she said.
I shook my head. "I can't. I just need a minute."
She crouched down so we were eye level. "Okay. That's okay. Do you want me to call the sheriff? Or I can drive you to the ER in town. My car's right there. You shouldn't sit here alone."
I looked at her, then at the ballroom lights. "Not the sheriff from the car. I want to do it right. At the ER where they can check me."
"So you want me to drive you? Or follow you?"
"Follow me," I said. "If he comes out, don't let him near my car."
She nodded. "I'll follow. I won't leave you."
I hung up on the window and turned the screen back on. The video was still there in my messages. Someone from the doorway had sent it to the group chat ten minutes earlier with no caption. Just a file.
I pressed play with my thumb hovering, not wanting to see it but needing to know what was actually on it.
0 to 3 seconds: wide shot, me on the floor against the bed, his arm raised, bouquet and my heel in the foreground on that patterned rug. You could see two women and a guy in the doorway watching.
3 to 6 seconds: close on my face, his hand gripping the top of my head, my hands up by my chin shaking. I remembered the way his fingers had dug in.
6 to 9 seconds: he shoved me forward, I went face down covering my head, veil fanned out. He stepped back over me.
9 to 15 seconds: him standing over me then turning toward the door where the older woman in burgundy stepped forward to face him.
Fifteen seconds. No sound came through, just the inferred room tone. No one could say what they didn't see.
Maya tapped the window again, softer. "Jenna wants you to post it, doesn't she?" she said through the glass. "Half the table already has it."
My sister's voice was still in my ear — she'd stayed on the line. I pressed the phone back up. "She just asked if I want to post it," I told her.
My sister cut in immediately. "Don't. Do not put that on Instagram. Once it's out there you don't control it and they will say you wanted attention. Take it to the ER, let them document, let the sheriff take it as evidence. That's the copy that counts."
I stared at the video paused on 9 seconds, my own body prone on the rug. The little share arrow was right there under it.
"You're right," I said. "I don't want people to share it like gossip. I want a report."
I locked my phone without posting, without forwarding it to anyone else. I texted my sister my location pin and told Maya through the window, "I'm driving to urgent care on County Road 9. Follow me. Don't post that video, please. Don't let anyone post it."
Maya held up her phone. "I won't. I've got it saved but I'm not sending it anywhere until you say it's for the police. Promise."
May you like
I put the car in reverse. My dress snagged on the gearshift and I had to yank it free. In the mirror the ballroom doors were still shut, but I could see a figure in a white shirt at the far window looking out toward the lot.
I didn't wait to see if it was him. I backed out and headed for the road, Maya's headlights coming on behind me, my sister's voice steady in my ear saying, "Stay on the line, keep driving, I'm already on the highway."
