Chapter 3

As Cole’s third slap was about to land, I watched my parents, who were holding me down with panic and a warning in their eyes.

They did not seem bothered that I was going to get hit.

My heart was cold, and I did not bother to duck. I even thought that Cole should hit me. At least that way I could see what happened next and try to figure it out.

In the split second before the slap landed, someone squeezed between us. It was Amelie.

She flung her arms out wide and shielded me with her back. Her voice was tearful but strangely firm. “Enough, Cole! You can’t keep slapping him!”

Cole’s hand stopped in midair, just a scant inch from the back of Amelie’s head.

I looked at Amelie before me and felt my heart clench. I did not know what I was feeling in the mess of my emotions.

The resentment and suspicion I felt toward her just a while ago faded.

In the end, Amelie was still my wife. When it mattered, she still cared for me.

Dad and Mom seemed to relax, but still they held me in place.

“Move aside, Amy,” Cole said in a low voice. His tone brooked no argument.

“I won’t! Even if Eli did something wrong, you can’t just hit him! This is our wedding!”

Warmth spread in my heart. I was about to say something when Amelie kept speaking.

“Eli, Cole has been with me for so long. He wouldn’t hit people for no reason. He really must have noticed something important. Think about it. Where did that mud on your shoes come from? Did you go somewhere you shouldn’t have?”

What was this about the mud again? The rage I had suppressed came flaring back.

“I did not go into the back garden. How many times do I have to tell you that? There’s no mud on my shoes either!” I yelled.

The feeling of being blamed for something without justification was driving me insane.

“Look at him. He won’t tell the truth even now,” Dad said.

Mom agreed immediately. There was a heartbroken look on her face. “Eli, you have to admit your mistakes. Stop denying it.”

I stared at them and watched how they played along with each other.

Then, there was Amelie, who was standing before me and seemed to be defending me. However, she also kept bringing the topic back to the mud and the back garden.

I suddenly felt a pulse of fear.

They were in on this together! The thought cemented itself in my head and made me feel cold all over.

I was shaking in rage, and my tone shifted as I said, “You don’t believe me, do you? You all think I should be slapped, right?

“Let go of me! I’ll call the police myself. Let the police take a look and see who here has gone mad!”

This time, I struggled even harder, and Dad nearly failed to hold me.

Amelie suddenly moved to face me. Her face was streaked with tears, but her gaze was strangely sharp. Her clear voice cut right through my angry howl.

“You disappoint me, Elijah.” She paused. Her gaze swept over my leather shoes meaningfully. Then, she looked abruptly at Cole.

“Cole, call the police!” she said clearly.

Her words were like an explosion, making my ears ring.

I was frozen in place as my blood seemed to turn to ice.

What was she talking about? She was asking Cole to call the police. Was it so that they would arrest me? Had she not been defending me just a second ago?

Cole shot a meaningful look at Amelie, and it held a kind of intimacy that I did not understand.

Without saying anything, Cole took out his phone and tapped on it. The ringing of the phone was like a hammer to my chest.

“You can’t call the police,” Dad yelled. His face was white.

“Hang up!” Mom was panicked as she tried to snatch the phone from Cole.

However, it was too late. Cole put the phone to his ear. He did not even look at my parents. He kept staring at me as he said calmly into the phone, “Hello, police? I would like to make a report. We’re in the ballroom of Wintervale Hotel.”

He paused, and his gaze landed on my shoes again. He smirked.

“The groom’s shoes are muddy.”

The reasoning he gave for making a police report was absolutely absurd.

The police thought it was a prank at first and even lectured Cole about abusing public resources.

However, what Cole said next made everyone panic.