"Stop it!" the bride screamed.
Lily ignored her.
Her little pink dress brushed against the scattered petals as she reached deeper into the arrangement, tearing away white roses and pale pink peonies with both hands.
"Lily!" her father shouted. "What on earth are you doing?"
The little girl turned toward him, her face streaked with tears.
"Daddy, there's someone back here!"
A nervous ripple passed through the guests.
The bride, Victoria Hale, rushed toward the child.
"She's making things up! Get her away from there!"
But Lily had already exposed a narrow black panel hidden behind the flowers.
Something moved in the darkness.
Then a woman's hand appeared.
Several guests screamed.
The groom, Daniel Bennett, pushed past Victoria and grabbed the edge of the panel. As it swung open, everyone saw a blonde woman lying on the floor of the narrow service compartment, her wrists bound and her mouth covered with tape.
Daniel dropped to his knees.
"Emily?"
The woman's eyes filled with tears.
Victoria stumbled backward.
"Daniel, don't listen to her. She isn't supposed to be here!"
He slowly turned toward his bride.
"How do you know who she is?"
For the first time that afternoon, Victoria had no answer.
Daniel looked back at the woman trapped behind the wall.
She was Emily Foster, the younger sister of his late wife—a woman the family had been told disappeared almost two years earlier.
And the little girl who had just saved her was the niece Emily had spent those two years trying to protect.