Chapter 28 - 29 Footage
Thirty seconds later, the giant screen in the centre of the ballroom lit up, crystal-clear like some Hollywood premiere, every detail sharp enough to catch the sweat prickling on Catherine’s arms.
From where I stood near the open door, I had the perfect view of the disaster unfolding downstairs.
Rhys whipped around to stare at Catherine. ‘You said Mirabelle was stirring shit, pulling the tablecloth and trying to pin it on you. So explain to me why, in that footage, it’s your hand yanking the cloth, and Mira’s nowhere bloody near it?’
Catherine burst into tears on cue, shaking so hard her diamond earrings rattled. She stammered for ages, blubbering, ‘Maybe I, I tugged it by accident? Mirabelle kept provoking me, and I panicked, I thought...’
No one was buying it.
Catherine grabbed Rhys’s sleeve. ‘Rhys, I didn’t mean to cause trouble! Mirabelle set me off!’
Ashton cut in, ‘Miss Vance, the cameras record audio too. If you insist on your innocence, I can have them pull the full footage from when you arrived. Let’s all hear exactly how Mirabelle “provoked” you, shall we?’
‘No!’ Catherine yelped.
She shut up after that, probably realising no amount of ugly crying was going to spin this train wreck.
Her mascara was sliding down her face in greasy black rivers, but Rhys wasn’t even looking at her anymore.
He stood there, breathing like he wanted to strangle someone, before forcing himself to chill.
I could smell the regret sweating off him. He was probably busy wishing he could time-travel five minutes back and unsay every stupid thing he had spat at Ashton.