Chapter 2: The Impossible Defense
Cornered against the pristine white wall, trembling in her cream-colored tulle dress, Lily wept helplessly. Her tiny hands clutched the gold casing against her chest, her innocent face streaked with hot, terrified tears. The same innocent face. The same terrified tears of a child caught in a storm of adult rage.
But as Clara reached out to violently snatch the locket away, Lily looked up, her wide, blue eyes filled with an unshakeable, desperate sincerity.
"She gave it to me!" Lily cried out, her voice a terrified defense that vibrated through the silent hallway. "The nice lady in the garden... she told me to give it to you!"
Clara froze. A sudden, chilling wave of cold air seemed to sweep through the bright wedding hallway, causing the heavy crystal sconces on the wall to flicker.
"What did you just say?" Clara asked, her voice dropping to a dangerously low, breathless whisper.
"Clara, don't listen to this nonsense," Beatrice hissed, stepping forward to grab Lily's shoulder. "The child is lying to escape punishment. She’s making up stories to manipulate you."
But Clara’s eyes were locked onto Lily. One woman stood in a gorgeous wedding gown, blinded by a year of unresolved grief and sudden rage over her deceased mother. The other little girl wept, begging the furious bride to just listen to the impossible truth she was trying to share.
"Describe her, Lily," Clara whispered, her aggressive anger completely vanishing, replaced by a sudden, creeping sense of pure horror. "Where did you see her?"
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"In the glass garden," Lily sobbed, her lower lip trembling violently. "She was wearing a long blue dress, and she had a pretty silver bracelet with a star on it. She told me her daughter Clara was getting married today, and that I had to tell you she never really left. She told me to tell you to look inside."
Clara’s heart stopped. Her mother had been buried in a long blue dress. And the silver star bracelet was a piece of jewelry that had been lost in the wreckage of the car accident a year ago—a detail no one outside the immediate family could possibly know.
