Chapter 5: The Brooch Falls
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“Anyone could have used this.”
“It requires your face,” Mr.
Pierce said.
“My wife knows my passcode.”
“Your passcode cannot unlock facial recognition.”
Vivian struck the table with her palm.
“Enough.
Search Emma’s purse properly.”
“You already searched it,” I said.
“Daniel only removed the obvious items.”
She lifted my purse and shook it.
A sapphire brooch fell onto the white tablecloth.
The ballroom went silent.
Vivian pressed a hand to her chest.
“There it is.”
I stared at the brooch.
“That was not in my purse.”
Daniel picked it up.
“Emma, stop.”
“You put it there.”
His jaw tightened.
“Apologize to Mother, and perhaps this can still be handled quietly.”
Dad rose from his chair.
“You will not threaten her.”
Daniel turned on him.
“You should be more worried about your heart than this hotel.”
My breath caught.
Only four people knew about Dad’s recent tests.
“How do you know about his heart?”
Daniel’s expression changed for half a second.
Vivian stepped in.
“Emma tells us everything.”
“No, I didn’t.”
Dad’s fingers slipped from the chair.
I caught him as his knees weakened.
“Call a doctor,” I cried.
A guest hurried forward, but Daniel blocked him.
“Sign the property back first.”
I looked at the man I had shared a home with for six years.
“You would bargain while my father can barely stand?”
“He created this scene,” Daniel said.
“He can end it.”
Dad’s weight sagged against me.
“Please,” I whispered.
“Just let the doctor through.”
Daniel held out a pen.
“One signature.”
My hand reached toward it.
A woman in a server’s uniform stepped between us and knocked the pen to the floor.
“No,” she said.
“Mr.
Mercer gets help first.”
Vivian glared at her.
“Lena, you’re dismissed.”
“Then I have nothing left to lose.”
Lena waved the doctor forward.
He checked Dad’s pulse and guided him into a chair.
“Slow breaths, Mr.
Mercer,” the doctor said.
“You’re staying seated until the ambulance team examines you.”
Dad caught my hand.
“Do not sign anything.”
“I thought I was losing you.”
“You won’t save me by handing yourself back to them.”
My eyes filled.
Lena crouched beside me and placed a glass of water in my shaking hands.
“I’m sorry I didn’t speak sooner,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Speak about what?”
“At 7:30, Mrs.
Graves sent me to fetch your purse from the cloakroom.”
Vivian’s face hardened.
“That is a lie.”
“You said Emma needed her medication.”
“I never said that.”
Lena reached into her apron.
“You wrote it on a service card.”
Daniel snatched the card from her.
“Where did you get this?”
“You gave it to me.”
He tore it once, then again.
Ellis held up his phone.
“I photographed it before you reached her.”
Daniel’s hand froze.
Lena pointed at Vivian.
“She took the purse into her suite.
When she returned it, the clasp was open.”
Vivian laughed.
“A dismissed waitress trying to save herself is not a witness.”
“She isn’t the only witness,” a woman said from behind the family table.
Daniel’s younger sister, Sophie, stood up with tears on her face.
“Sophie,” Vivian warned, “sit down.”
Sophie placed her phone beside the torn card.
May you like
“I recorded what you and Daniel said in the suite,” she replied.
“Including the part where Daniel asked if the brooch would be enough to make Emma sign.”
