Marcus pulled his hand back, his face red with sudden embarrassment as his wealthy friends watched the scene unfold. He was a man who cared deeply about his public image, his family business, and his pending inheritance. Seeing a plain server make a scene in front of his wealthy board members made his stomach turn into tight knots. He looked at Hannah's bruised face and felt a strange pang of familiarity, but he pushed it down quickly. He couldn't let a random server ruin his million-dollar wedding day in front of everyone.
Groom: Security, get her out!
Marcus yelled out loud, waving his hand toward the guards who were now just five feet away from Hannah. But before the guards could grab her arms, Hannah leaned forward across the wide white tablecloth. She pointed her finger directly at Marcus's left arm, where a dark high-tech smartwatch sat on his wrist. It was a custom device connected directly to the venue's private cloud network and security cameras. Hannah knew that because she had spent hours finding out how the venue saved its video logs. She didn't come here to start a mindless physical fight; she came here with solid digital proof that nobody could deny.
Waitress: Check your watch right now! Tap the private storage folder!
Hannah shouted over the noise of the gathering crowd, her voice full of desperate power. Marcus frowned, his eyes dropping down to his wrist almost automatically as her words sank into his mind. Evelyn gasped loudly, reaching across the table to physically grab Marcus's arm to stop him from looking. Her face had lost all its color, turning completely white beneath her heavy foundation. That tiny reaction was all Marcus needed to see to know that something was deeply wrong. He pulled his wrist out of Evelyn's firm grip and unlocked the bright screen with a fast tap of his thumb.
The guards stopped right behind Hannah, looking at Marcus for a final nod before touching the young woman. The whole room fell into a dead silence as people waited to see what was on the small screen. You could hear a pin drop on the hardwood floor as the tension soared to an uncomfortable height. Marcus stared down at the small video preview that popped up on his screen. A quick line of code downloaded the file directly from the cloud server. His thumb hovered over the play button for a brief second before he pressed it with a shaking hand.
Groom: My God... she tried to do it.
Marcus whispered the words, but in the quiet room, they sounded like a thunderclap. Tears suddenly welled up in his eyes, spilling over his lower eyelids and streaming down his face. The video on the small screen showed a clear overhead view of the VIP lounge from three nights ago. On the screen, Evelyn was standing near a drink station, looking around nervously to ensure nobody was watching her. She pulled a small glass vial from her designer purse and poured a clear liquid straight into a glass. It was the same glass that Marcus's wealthy father had drunk from before collapsing later that night.