Chapter 3: The Smile Breaks
Chapter 3: The Smile Breaks
The officer turned toward him.
“Sir… do you want to explain this?”
Preston didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he exhaled slowly.
Then tried to laugh again.
But it didn’t land this time.
“That footage doesn’t show context,” he said. “My niece has behavioral issues. This is clearly staged by her mother.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
But Sophie was still in my arms, and she was fading in and out of consciousness.
One officer knelt beside me.
“We need an ambulance immediately,” he said.
Already on the way, I thought.
Good.
Preston’s bride finally spoke, her voice shaky.
“You said she stole your phone…”
Preston turned sharply toward her.
“Because she did.”
But no one believed him anymore.
The CCTV replay looped again on the monitor behind them.
The planted phone.
The false accusation.
The moment he struck Sophie.
Each second harder to deny.
My mother finally spoke, but her voice was weaker now.
“Preston… tell them this is some kind of mistake.”
He didn’t look at her.
He was still staring at the screen.
At himself.
At the truth he could no longer bury.
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And for the first time in his life…
He looked uncertain.
