Chapter 14 - THE BRIDE’S CONFESSION
Police found Camille hiding inside a locked storage room beneath the cargo terminal.
She was alone.
Her white coat was torn.
One side of her face was swollen.
Preston had escaped through another exit.
Camille finally stopped protecting him.
She admitted that she knew about the plan to frame Sophie.
Preston told her it was only meant to pressure me into signing financial documents.
He promised no one would hurt Sophie.
When I said no, Preston lost control.
Camille watched him raise the board.
She could have warned me.
She could have stepped between him and Sophie.
Instead, she remained silent because she feared the wedding would collapse.
After Preston was released on bond, his behavior became increasingly violent.
He blamed Camille for Henry’s vote at the board meeting.
The bruise on her face came from Preston.
She also admitted that Henry ordered the surveillance server erased.
Her father had not planned the attack on Sophie.
But he tried to destroy evidence to protect the merger and the Whitmore name.
Camille gave police access to Preston’s secret email account.
Inside were messages to Grant.
One message discussed Nathan’s brake line seven years earlier.
Make it look like weather.
Another ordered Grant to watch my apartment.
A third instructed him to burn the lighthouse.
The evidence connected Preston to attempted murder, conspiracy, stalking, witness intimidation, and attempted abduction.
Camille signed a full statement.
In exchange, prosecutors considered reduced charges against her.
When I met her at the police station, she could barely look at me.
“I am sorry.”
I stared at the woman who had worried more about an ivory carpet than my daughter’s blood.
“You are sorry because he turned on you.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“That is not fair.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“What happened to Sophie was not fair.”
Camille whispered that Preston had mentioned a house near Lake Geneva.
Grant’s family owned an abandoned hunting cabin there.
Police helicopters began searching the area.
At midnight, thermal cameras detected movement inside the cabin.
Officers surrounded the property.
A man appeared at the rear window.
He was holding a rifle.
Detective Brooks called me from the command vehicle.
“We believe Preston is inside.”
Then another heat signature appeared beside him.
May you like
Smaller.
A child.
