Chapter 5: Lily's Secret**
Lily slipped off the armchair and walked over to James, tugging at his shirt sleeve. In her small palm rested a second item—a silver pendant shaped like a teardrop, tarnished with age.
"Rebecca put this in my dress pocket this morning," Lily said, looking between them. "She said Mommy Claire wore it so angels could hear her."
James recognized the locket immediately. It had disappeared from the hospital inventory the night Claire passed. He opened the silver clasp with his thumbnail; nested inside was a micro-SD card alongside a tiny slip of paper bearing the key code to the safety deposit box.
"Richard thought I had the physical documents," Rebecca explained. "I let him believe I did so his attention stayed entirely on me. But the digital backup was right here all along."
James looked at his bride with newfound clarity. What he had momentarily feared was deceit was, in reality, a shield of extraordinary courage. Rebecca had walked toward the altar not to deceive him, but to put herself in the line of fire to draw Richard out into the open.
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"We aren't calling off the wedding," James decided, his voice settling into a resolute, dangerous calm. "We're changing the vows."
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