Chapter 4 - Thirty Witnesses
The house changed in minutes.
Music stopped.
Champagne disappeared.
Nobody was laughing anymore.
Detectives moved through the living room photographing everything.
The chain.
The documents.
The hammer.
The syringe.
My torn dress.
My hair scattered across the floor.
An officer crouched beside me.
“Emily, paramedics are going to move you.”
I grabbed Dad’s hand.
“Cooper.”
The veterinarian looked up.
“He’s sedated and disoriented, but his vitals are stabilizing.”
“Will he live?”
“Yes.”
I started crying.
Dad squeezed my hand.
“He’s coming with us.”
Across the room, Brandon was being handcuffed.
“This is ridiculous!” he shouted. “She’s my wife!”
The detective stared at him.
“That doesn’t help your case.”
Melissa pointed toward Brandon.
“He planned everything!”
“You drugged her wine,” Brandon shouted.
“Because you told me to!”
“You brought the syringe!”
“Because you bought it!”
The detective looked between them.
“Please keep talking.”
Victor almost smiled.
Brandon finally noticed.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
Victor nodded toward the cameras.
“I think it’s useful.”
A guest named Daniel approached the detective.
“I have video.”
Brandon stared at him.
“You recorded me?”
Daniel swallowed.
“I thought it was some sick joke at first.”
“You laughed!”
“I was scared.”
I looked at him from the stretcher.
“You could’ve left.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
Another woman stepped forward.
“I recorded too.”
Then another.
Within minutes, police had more evidence than Brandon could have imagined.
Dad walked beside my stretcher.
Brandon called after him.
“Mr. Yates!”
Dad stopped.
For the first time all evening, Brandon sounded respectful.
“I didn’t know who you were.”
Dad turned slowly.
“That matters to you?”
Brandon said nothing.
“If you had known who I was,” Dad continued, “you wouldn’t have hurt Emily.”
“No.”
“But because you thought her father was poor and powerless, you believed you could.”
Brandon’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Dad nodded.
“Thank you.”
Brandon frowned.
“For what?”
“For telling everyone exactly what kind of man you are.”
The paramedics wheeled me outside.
Rain touched my face.
Dad climbed into the ambulance beside me.
I looked at him.
“Who are you?”
He sighed.
“Your father.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
I stared at the convoy surrounding us.
“You own all of this?”
“Not the ambulances.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
It hurt.
Dad smiled faintly.
“There’s my girl.”
“Dad.”
His expression became serious.
“How much do you want to know?”
“All of it.”
He nodded.
“Then when you’re safe, I’ll tell you.”
At the hospital, doctors treated my injuries while Cooper was taken to an emergency veterinary clinic.
Dad never left.
At three in the morning, Victor entered.
“Brandon and Melissa have been formally arrested.”
Dad nodded.
“And the companies?”
“Untouched. The documents were never signed.”
I closed my eyes.
Brandon had failed.
Victor continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“We checked Brandon’s finances.”
Dad looked at him.
Victor handed over a folder.
“He owes nearly four million dollars.”
“To whom?” I asked.
“Several private lenders.”
Dad’s eyes narrowed.
Victor continued.
“He married Emily because he believed she controlled enough assets to solve his problem.”
The room went quiet.
I looked at Dad.
“So the whole marriage…”
“I don’t know,” he said.
Victor did.
“We found messages between Brandon and Melissa going back eighteen months.”
My wedding had been twelve months earlier.
I understood immediately.
Melissa hadn’t become his mistress during our marriage.
She had already been there.
I stared at the ceiling.
Dad touched my hand.
“Emily.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
I looked at him.
“But I will be.”
For the first time that night, my father smiled.
May you like
“That sounds like my daughter.”
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