Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO COULDN'T LET GOClaire's mother, Diane, had sent the package.
She claimed it wasn't a threat.
She called it a reminder.
Of what, nobody could quite explain.
Emmett confronted her outside the venue.
I stood nearby.
“You stay away from my daughter.”
Diane lifted her chin.
“My daughter lost everything because of your family.”
“No.”
Emmett's voice remained steady.
“Claire lost everything because of Claire.”
“You humiliated her.”
“She kidnapped my child.”
“She panicked.”
“She planned to send Margot away months before that.”
Diane's eyes flashed.
“You don't know what Claire survived.”
I stepped forward.
“And Claire didn't care what Margot survived.”
Diane looked at me.
“You started all of this.”
“No.”
“I watched the video.”
I frowned.
“What video?”
“Your toast.”
My stomach dropped.
Someone had uploaded the wedding confrontation online.
Millions of people had watched it.
I hadn't known.
Diane continued.
“My daughter became a monster to strangers.”
I felt something uncomfortable then.
Not guilt for exposing Claire.
But awareness.
Claire deserved consequences.
She did not deserve to become entertainment for millions of people who knew nothing about her beyond the worst minutes of her life.
“Who posted it?”
Emmett asked.
Diane laughed bitterly.
“You really don't know?”
We didn't.
She told us.
Jenna.
The bridesmaid who had first spoken up.
She had posted the video anonymously.
Then sold an interview.
The story had spread.
Claire lost her job.
Her apartment.
Friends.
Every search of her name brought up the wedding.
Emmett looked sick.
“I didn't want that.”
Diane stared at him.
“It happened anyway.”
Police escorted her away.
The wedding continued.
But her words stayed with me.
That night, after Margot was asleep, I found the video.
Twenty-eight million views.
There I was.
Standing with my champagne glass.
Comments celebrated me.
Some called me a hero.
Others called Claire names I wouldn't repeat.
People joked about her death.
Her appearance.
Her family.
They knew nothing.
And yet they had decided they knew everything.
I shut the computer.
Hannah found me sitting alone.
“You did the right thing that day.”
“I told the truth.”
“Yes.”
“But truth can become cruelty when strangers turn it into entertainment.”
The next morning, I contacted Jenna.
She admitted everything.
“I thought people should see what Claire did.”
“Why did you sell the interview?”
Silence.
Then:
“I needed the money.”
I closed my eyes.
“How much?”
She told me.
Thirty thousand dollars.
But that wasn't the worst part.
Before hanging up, Jenna said:
“Walter, Claire contacted me last week.”
My heart skipped.
“Why?”
“She wants the original video.”
“What for?”
May you like
Jenna hesitated.
“She says there are six minutes nobody online has ever seen.”
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