Chapter 2 - The Hospital and the Evidence Locker
By the time the ambulance arrived at the Gloucester pier, the wedding guests had scattered into panicked knots in the parking lot.
The police had already been called—not by my mother or Kendall, who were desperately trying to convince the camera crew to delete the cloud server footage, but by Rafi, who had preserved the empty crystal coupe in a sanitized plastic bin behind the bar.
I sat in the back of the ambulance, an EMT gently applying a neutralizing saline compress to my left cheek and neck while checking my vital signs. The burn was diagnosed as a second-degree chemical injury, requiring immediate specialized treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital burn unit in Boston.
As the ambulance doors prepared to close, Detective Sergeant Miller of the Gloucester Police Department stepped up to the vehicle, holding a small evidence bag.
“Ms. Vance?” he asked gently.
“Yes,” I murmured, wincing as the cold compress touched a raw spot on my jawline.
“We’ve secured the glass your sister threw from,” Detective Miller said, holding up the crystal coupe, which still contained a few viscous, un-evaporated drops of the clear liquid. “We also executed a search warrant on your mother’s canvas tote bag left in the bridal suite. Inside, we found the brass key to your father’s truck box, along with an empty, red commercial drain-opener container bearing industrial warning labels.”
My heart skipped a beat. The trap had closed.
“They planned it,” I whispered.
“It looks that way,” the detective replied grimly. “Your mother signed out the key under the pretense of borrowing a prop. Security cameras from your father’s driveway show your mother unlocking the truck box at 6:00 AM on the morning of the wedding, extracting a small plastic squeeze bottle, and pouring its contents into her tote bag before returning the key.”
He tapped the side of the evidence bag.
“We have them on video at the truck. We have the forensic residue in the glass. And thanks to Lantern House’s production crew, we have high-definition, multi-angle footage of your sister walking over, announcing the prank, and intentionally throwing lye into your face.”
Detective Miller closed his notebook and gave me a steady, reassuring nod.
May you like
“Rest up at the hospital, Ms. Vance. When you're discharged tomorrow morning, my department will be ready to take your formal statement for aggravated felonious assault, chemical endangerment, and conspiracy.”
The ambulance doors slammed shut, and the vehicle pulled away from the pier, carrying me toward Boston while my family's carefully constructed world began to implode behind me.
