Chapter 2 - The Angle Emily Never Saw
Three days later, I sat inside Noah’s studio with a protective shield over my left eye.
The swelling had decreased.
The pain had not.
My vision remained a blur of light and shadow whenever the doctor allowed me to open the eye for testing.
Dad sat beside me.
Mom arrived alone and remained near the door.
Emily had refused to come.
Noah placed his laptop on a low table.
Officer Daniel Hayes stood near the window in a dark police uniform. The hospital had reported a suspicious injury after the doctor learned someone directed the venue to destroy the equipment.
Daniel had already collected the damaged cannon inside an evidence bag.
He had not opened it.
“We will watch the footage first,” he said. “Then I will decide whether the tube needs forensic processing.”
Mom wrapped both hands around her purse.
“This was a terrible accident.”
Officer Daniel looked at her.
“Then the evidence will support that.”
Noah opened the wedding folder.
His official handheld camera had been pointed toward the newlyweds during the blast.
A smaller shoulder camera continued recording the wider dance floor while he changed lenses.
Emily did not know it existed.
The first angle showed guests collecting cannons from a decorative basket.
Each tube had a gold ribbon.
Each guest twisted the base and aimed upward.
Emily picked up the final cannon.
She looked at the label.
Then she glanced toward me.
I was standing twenty feet away beside the champagne table.
Noah slowed the video.
Emily placed one hand over the open end.
She turned her back toward the official photographer.
Her fingers disappeared inside the gold paper rim.
“What is she doing?” Dad asked.
Noah advanced frame by frame.
Emily removed something from beneath the lace at her wrist.
She pushed it into the cannon.
Mom stood.
“No.”
The footage continued.
Emily crossed behind two guests.
She raised the tube.
The people beside her aimed at the ceiling.
Emily aimed horizontally.
Directly toward my face.
The blast happened.
The video froze on the instant before impact.
“This was not an accident,” Noah said.
Mom began crying.
“She would not put metal inside.”
Officer Daniel placed the evidence bag on the table.
“We do not yet know what she inserted.”
Dad looked toward Susan.
“You knew about the loan.”
“I knew Emily borrowed money.”
“Against our house?”
“She said the bank required temporary security.”
“Did Lena approve it?”
Mom covered her face.
“No.”
“You let her tell Lena it was a banking mistake.”
“I wanted the wedding to happen.”
“Our daughter may lose vision.”
“I did not know she would do this.”
Officer Daniel asked Mom to sit.
Then he put on gloves and opened the evidence bag beneath the police camera he had brought.
The cannon tube had been protected inside Noah’s sealed equipment case and transferred under documented chain of custody.
Daniel tilted it carefully.
Metallic confetti slid onto a white evidence sheet.
Then something struck the table with a hard click.
A small steel piece rolled beneath the lamp.
It was shaped like a cut section of a metal bolt.
One edge had been filed smooth.
The other remained sharp.
Dad moved toward it.
Daniel raised one hand.
“Do not touch.”
Mom stared at the steel.
“That could blind someone.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
The inside of the tube contained a strip of clear adhesive.
Someone had fixed the metal near the compressed charge so it would launch when the base twisted.
This required preparation.
The metal had not fallen into the tube accidentally.
Emily’s fingerprints would not prove intent by themselves because she handled the cannon.
The video showed insertion.
The adhesive showed modification.
The filed edge showed the object had been shaped.
Daniel requested a warrant for Emily’s phone, bridal preparation room, vehicle, and company office.
Mom stood again.
“You cannot search her home on her wedding footage alone.”
“Mrs. Parker, the video appears to show your daughter placing an object inside a device and aiming it at another person’s face.”
“She was upset.”
“That is not a defense.”
“I meant she may not have understood what would happen.”
Dad looked at her.
“She told everyone Lena was pretending while blood ran down her face.”
Susan’s loyalty to Emily was no longer maternal protection.
It was becoming denial.
I took out my phone.
“The bank loan closes tomorrow.”
Officer Daniel looked toward me.
“What loan?”
I explained the family trust, the forged approval, and Parker Events and Design.
Emily’s company had lost several corporate clients after failing to deliver two major events. Vendors had filed collection claims. The wedding itself cost more than one hundred eighty thousand dollars.
Dad believed the expenses came from Emily’s savings and her fiancé Caleb’s family.
They did not.
The home equity application listed the wedding venue, floral company, catering service, and production vendors as business development expenses.
Emily had attempted to finance her wedding through a loan against our parents’ home.
“She knew I planned to stop it Monday,” I said.
Daniel wrote the date down.
“When did you tell her?”
“Thursday night.”
“Where?”
“At Mom and Dad’s house.”
“Who was present?”
“Emily and Mom.”
Dad turned toward Susan.
“You knew Lena was stopping the loan?”
“She said she wanted an independent review.”
“Did you tell Emily?”
“I asked them both to wait.”
“That is not what he asked,” I said.
Mom looked at me.
“Yes. I told Emily that you had contacted the bank.”
The wedding occurred Saturday.
The final bank verification was scheduled Tuesday.
If my eye injury required surgery, medication, or hospitalization, Emily might have believed I would miss the appointment.
The trust had no automatic delay for illness.
A temporary medical authorization could permit another family representative to appear.
The application named Susan Parker as alternate witness.
Mom stared at me when Officer Daniel revealed the page.
“I did not agree to that.”
“Your signature is there,” I said.
“It is not mine.”
For the first time, Susan stopped defending Emily.
Noah opened another folder.
“I found something else.”
His footage from the bridal suite showed Emily at a vanity table thirty minutes before the reception.
On the table sat three loose steel pieces identical in shape to the fragment from the cannon.
Beside them was a small file.
Emily looked toward the door.
Then she wrapped the pieces in a white handkerchief and placed them inside her bouquet bag.
Mom sank into the chair.
Officer Daniel closed the laptop.
“I am obtaining the warrant now.”
My phone vibrated.
A message arrived from Emily.
You always take what should be mine.
A second followed.
May you like
Tell the police Noah edited the footage, or Mom and Dad lose the house by Friday.
Continue to the next part: Emily threatens the family home while police uncover why the forged loan had to close before anyone examined her company.
