Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Owen has the footage because Jeremy asked him to edit the bachelor-party video for a private joke.
He did not know Jeremy planned to post it.
"Why did you agree to edit anything?" I ask.
Owen clears his throat. "Jeremy said Caleb wanted a funny reel for the groomsmen. I cut the first version, but I included him pushing Sable away. Jeremy told me the ending ruined the joke."
"The truth ruined the joke," Ivy says.
"Yes."
"Did you make the version with music?" I ask.
"No. Jeremy did that. He slowed the kiss and removed my watermark."
"Why didn't you warn me when it was posted?"
"I panicked. Caleb was calling Jeremy. Everyone was shouting. By the time I decided to contact you, Ivy had already sent the warning."
"Another man who panicked," I say. “And they say women are too emotional to rule the world.”
Caleb speaks quietly through the phone. "He should have told you. So should I. Do not let him take my share because he feels guilty."
"I am not dividing guilt. There seems to be enough for everyone."
Owen offers to send the original file metadata and every version Jeremy requested. I tell him I do not care about proving anything to strangers.
What I do not tell him is that I care desperately about proving it to myself.
At least, that is what he says while Caleb and I listen from opposite ends of a group call. Marguerite has been disconnected. Ivy sits beside me with a legal pad as though we are taking testimony at trial.
"Send it to Dahlia," Caleb says.
"Wait," I say.
Caleb's silence is immediate.
"I don't want another file appearing in the group."
"It won't," Owen says. "I'll send it only to you."
"No," Caleb says. "Everyone saw the lie. Everyone should see what actually happened."
"My marriage is not your public-relations emergency."
"That isn't what I meant."
"You keep deciding what I need before asking me."
"I am asking now."
"Send it to me," I tell Owen. "Nobody else."
Owen promises. He sends a link while we are still speaking.
I do not open it.
For twenty minutes, the link sits on my screen while I walk from the kitchen to the bedroom and back again.
"What are you afraid of seeing?" Ivy asks.
"That the edit lied."
"Wouldn't that be good?"
"What if the truth makes Caleb innocent?"
She frowns. "Do you want him guilty?"
"I want leaving to be the right decision. I want to stop wondering whether I blew up my marriage because somebody chose the worst three seconds and put music behind them."
"If the full video changes things, you are allowed to change with it."
"Everyone will say I overreacted."
"Everyone can choke."
"Marguerite will say I should have stayed. Caleb will say I should have trusted him."
"And you will remind them he hid it first."
I sit beside her. "What if I see him push Sable away and still cannot forgive him?"
"Then you don't. Evidence is not a command."
Her certainty steadies me. I reach for the link.
That is when the file appears in the group.
Caleb asks whether he can come over and watch it with me. I say no. He asks if I want him to stay on the phone. I say no again.
"Call me afterward," he says.
"I am not promising that."
"Then call Ivy afterward. Don't watch it alone."
The concern infuriates me because it still feels like love.
We disconnect.
Five minutes later, the file appears in the wedding group.
Caleb has sent it.
You all watched an edited version. Here is everything. I am not innocent, but Dahlia deserves the truth.
My entire body turns hot.
I call him.
"What did I just tell you?"
"Jeremy was already telling people the raw footage proved I chose Sable."
"I don't care!"
"I do."
"Of course you do. It is your reputation."
"It is yours too."
"Do not pretend you did this for me. I asked for one thing. One. You ignored me before the wedding because you decided hiding the video protected me. Now you ignore what I say because you decide posting it protects me. When exactly do I get to decide what happens to my own life?"
“I just want you back. I’m in panic mode.”
"That is becoming an expensive habit."
"Dahlia, I am sorry."
"I haven't even watched it, and now a hundred people are dissecting it before I do."
"Then don't watch it."
"How can I not?"
"Let me come over."
"No."
"Please."
"You keep thinking if you can get in the room, you can make me love you enough to stop being hurt."
"You do love me."
"That is not the advantage you think it is."
I hang up and throw the phone onto the sofa.
Ivy sits beside me. "We can delete it."
"No."
"We can wait."
"No."
I open the link.
The full video is twenty-three minutes long. At first, nothing happens. Men drink. Jeremy taunts Caleb about marriage. Caleb checks his phone and smiles at a photograph I sent him that evening.
The photograph is of my feet beneath a blanket. I sent it with the message, Your future wife is watching terrible television without you.
Caleb shows the phone to Owen.
"She bought the ugly blanket," he says.
"You bought it for me," I whisper at the screen.
"No," Ivy says. "You pointed at it. He paid. Men consider that purchasing expertise."
On-screen, Owen asks whether Caleb is nervous.
"About marrying Dahlia? No. About Dahlia changing her mind after meeting all of you? Terrified."
The men laugh.
Caleb looks happy. Not trapped. Not miserable. Not like a man waiting for rescue from an ex. The sight should comfort me. Instead it makes the coming betrayal feel even more senseless.
Jeremy brings him another drink.
"She has you domesticated," he says.
"She has me sleeping eight hours a night and paying my taxes. It’s terrible."
"Last chance to run."
"From Dahlia? Never. From this party? Give me an hour."
Jeremy turns toward the camera. His smile is thin.
I pause the video.
"He hates me," I say.
"Jeremy? Obviously."
"I thought he teased me because that was how he treated everyone."
"People often hide hatred inside a joke so they can call you humorless when you notice."
I remember Jeremy asking whether I intended to put Caleb on a curfew after the wedding. I laughed. Caleb told him to stop. Nobody let the moment become serious enough to examine.
"I knew he resented me," I say. "I kept being nice because I wanted Caleb's friends to love me."
"That is not a crime."
"No. Just another red flag I ignored.”
I restart the recording.
An hour passes on-screen in jumps. Caleb becomes louder and less steady. Jeremy steers every conversation toward freedom, women, and the things marriage will take from him. The other men laugh, but Owen stops participating.
Then Jeremy whispers to someone off-camera.
Then Jeremy whispers to someone off-camera.
The room changes.
Men gather around Caleb. Someone ties the blindfold. Caleb asks what they are doing.
"Special delivery from your bride," Jeremy says.
"Dahlia would murder all of you."
"She drove here to do it personally."
Caleb laughs, uncertain but pleased.
Sable enters.
I watch my husband lift his face toward her.
She kisses him.
He responds instantly.
The blindfold comes off.
Caleb sees her.
And for an endless moment, he keeps kissing her.