Chapter 1

Holly Sullivan and I registered our marriage two months ago. Our wedding ceremony was scheduled for tomorrow.

The venue was booked, the guests had been informed, and all of the payments had been made. I thought that, by the end of tomorrow, Holly and I would officially be a family.

But those words that hovered before my eyes gave me a rude awakening.

Eric Cooper, my best friend, was still on the call with me, urging, "Hey man, you there? Say something! Everyone's waiting for you. It's your last night as a bachelor. Are you even a man if you don't show up?"

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I'd thrown on a black jacket over my white shirt. The watch Holly had given me was on my wrist.

It suddenly hit me just how ridiculous this situation was.

"I'll be there a little later," I said quietly.

Eric gave a chuckle and declared, "Now that's more like it. It's the Crown Suite at The Aurelian, got it? Don't go to the wrong place. I promise that tonight's surprise is one you'll never forget."

The call ended, but I didn't rush out the door. The first thing I did was disable all transaction methods for the financial services under my name, including my bank account, my credit card, and my Venmo account.

Then I froze the supplementary card I'd given Holly. I'd given her that card to pay for our wedding expenses. Two weeks ago, she'd said the stress of the upcoming wedding was getting to her and that doing a little retail therapy would cheer her up. I hadn't thought much of it.

Looking back now, I felt like an idiot.

I sent my lawyer, Michael Gardner, a message with a link to track my real-time location.

"If I go missing tonight, or if anyone accuses me of soliciting prostitutes, domestic violence, or infidelity, retrieve my phone recordings, dashcam footage, payment records, location history, and home surveillance footage immediately."

Michael's reply came instantly. "What's going on?"

I answered, "Someone wants to set me up."

Then I turned on my phone's continuous audio recording feature.

I ran a company specializing in security systems. I knew better than most how cameras, access control systems, vehicle recording equipment, and digital forensics worked.

I configured the audio recording to upload to the company server in real time, then enabled cloud backup for all four channels of my dashcam footage.

Once that was done, I messaged Holly.

"Eric invited me to a club tonight. I'm only joining him for a few minutes as a courtesy to him. I won't participate in anything illegal or inappropriate. If you have a problem with this and want to call off tomorrow's wedding, we can handle everything in accordance with the law and let the evidence speak for itself."

It took her quite a while to reply. "Logan, why are you saying this to me on the eve of our wedding? Are you hiding something from me?"

I stared at the message for a few seconds, but I didn't respond.

I got into my car and drove out of the apartment complex, but instead of heading to the club, I made a stop at the South Precinct police station.

After hearing what I said, the officer on duty looked at me and asked, "You suspect someone is going to set you up at The Aurelian?"

"That's right."

"Then you can choose not to go over there," the officer reminded me.

"If I don't go, they'll just execute another scheme," I replied. "My wedding is tomorrow. I don't want someone to destroy it with a fake video and fabricated testimony."

The officer frowned. "Be careful. If anything happens, call the police immediately. Don't get into a confrontation on your own."

I nodded and made sure the police had made an official record of my statement. It was 8:27 pm when I left the police station.

As I made my way to The Aurelian, traffic suddenly came to a standstill. Up ahead, an old man was sitting by the roadside, his elbow scraped raw. Beside him stood the owner of an electric scooter, who smelled strongly of alcohol and was cursing him out.

"Don't even try to scam me, you old bugger! I haven't even asked you to pay me for the damage to my scooter!"

I pulled over in a spot where I knew the security cameras could capture me. Then I used my phone to record the accident scene before pulling up the footage from my dashcam.

The footage was crystal clear. The electric scooter had run a red light and clipped the elderly man before the rider fell off himself.

I called the police and arranged an ambulance for the old man.

Clutching his arm, he looked at me and said, "You seem like a levelheaded young man who handles things well."

"It's an occupational habit."

"What's your name? What do you do for a living?"

"I'm Logan Hughes. I'm in the security systems industry."

The man nodded. "My name is Steven Archer. I used to be pretty involved with surveillance systems and the digital forensics industry myself."

I arrived at The Aurelian at exactly 9:00 pm. As soon as the elevator doors opened, I spotted Eric at the far end of the hallway. He waved at me and hollered, "Logan, over here! We've been waiting on you!"