He Arrested My Father at Our Wedding Chapter 02

He Arrested My Father at Our Wedding Chapter 02

“Sienna, here’s some water.”

Olivia set a disposable paper cup in front of me.

The interrogation-room lights were stark white, leaving nowhere for a person to hide.

My white wedding gown looked absurdly harsh under that light, and my pearl hairpins were still crooked because no one had given me time to take them out.

I did not touch the water.

“No need to be so formal, Sienna. We’re practically family.” Olivia pulled out the chair across from me, sat down, and took a stack of documents from a file folder. “If you don’t mind, let’s talk.”

“Where is Logan?”

“Detective Reed is next door, and your father is next door too. Don’t worry. Nothing is going to happen.”

She opened to the first page. There was a printed photograph on it.

It was from the day Logan and I first met.

It was the coffee shop on the corner. I remembered that it had been raining that day. His umbrella had broken, so I lent him mine. Later, he told me it had been fate.

A line of text sat in the lower-right corner of the photo: Camera 3, 2:37 p.m.

“You recognize this place, don’t you, Sienna?” Olivia tapped the photo with one fingertip. “Detective Reed looked good in that gray jacket that day. You probably thought he was handsome too, didn’t you?”

My fingers slowly curled into a fist.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Nothing.” She turned to another page. The second photo was from the restaurant where we had eaten together for the first time, taken from a window across the street.

Then came the third photo, the fourth, and the fifth.

At the movie theater, I was leaning on his shoulder. In the park, he was tying my shoelace. On my birthday, he had dropped to one knee, held up a sunflower, and said, “One every year from now on, until I’ve given you ninety-nine.”

Every photo had an ID number and timestamp in the lower-right corner.

“These…”

“Work files.” Olivia closed the folder, her tone as light as if she were talking about the weather. “Sienna, when Detective Reed received this assignment, the two of you hadn’t even met yet.”

I could hear my own heartbeat.

Each beat landed like a nail being driven into my chest.

“So you’re saying he approached me because he was investigating my father?”

“I didn’t say that.” She lifted her coffee and took a sip. “What I said was that the case came first, and your relationship came after. As for whether Detective Reed’s feelings were real, you would know that better than I would.”

She knew I did not know.

That was exactly what she wanted. She wanted me to ask the question myself and tear my own wound open.

“How long has this case been under investigation?”

“Sienna, I’m not at liberty to say that.”

“How long?”

Olivia looked at me for three seconds, then set down her cup.

“Twenty months.”

It had been twenty months.

Logan and I had been together for nineteen months and six days.

He had entered my life even earlier than I had realized. He had not seen me first and then gotten pulled into the case.

The case had come first, and then someone had manufactured a chance for him to meet me.

“Sienna, you don’t look well. Do you want to take a break?”

I said nothing.

“Then let’s continue.” She opened another file. “You said the seven million dollars was yours. Can you explain that?”

“The money came from a completely legal source.”

“You’re saying legally earned money was placed under your father’s name without his knowledge, while he lives on barely over a thousand dollars a month.” Olivia looked at me. “Sienna, do you really think that explanation holds up?”

“Let me finish.”

“Go ahead.”

“That money was from my—”

“Olivia.” The door was pushed open, and another plainclothes detective leaned in. “Detective Reed said to pause for now. Let everyone take a break.”

Olivia closed the file and smiled at me.

“Sienna, what were you about to say? Never mind. We can pick this up next time. We have plenty of time.”

Her smile had not changed from beginning to end. It was polite, gentle, and flawless.

It chilled me more than Logan’s cold face ever had.

“Sienna.” She reached the door, then looked back at me. “Do you know what your father had with him next door? A watch, an old wallet, forty dollars in cash, and a wallet-size photo of you from when you were little.”

“Why are you telling me that?”

“No reason.” She opened the door. “I just think your father is kind of pitiful.”