Chapter 3: What Sarah Said
Evelyn answered on the second ring.
"Sarah." Her voice was barely above a whisper.
The sound that came back through the phone was not a voice.
It was breathing — fast, shallow, the kind that comes when someone is trying not to be heard.
"Mom." My mother's voice finally broke through.
"Is she with you?
Is she safe?"
"She's right here.
She's safe." Evelyn turned her back to the corridor and lowered her voice further.
"Sarah, where are you?"
"Don't come outside through the front.
Please.
The man near the entrance — does he have a gray scarf?"
Evelyn looked back toward the ballroom doors.
The man in the dark coat had not moved.
The gray scarf was folded over his left arm.
"Yes," Evelyn said.
"Then there's a second one.
He'll be near the service entrance on the east side." A pause.
"They work for Richard."
The name landed like something dropped from a height.
I didn't know who Richard was.
But Evelyn's hand went rigid around mine.
"That's not possible," Evelyn said.
"Richard has been in London for—"
"He came back six weeks ago.
He knows about the necklace.
He knows about Clara." Another pause, shorter this time.
"He knows she exists."
I looked up at Evelyn.
She wasn't looking at me.
She was staring at the wall, at something that wasn't there.
"How did he find out?" Evelyn asked.
"Someone told him.
I don't know who.
But he's been watching us since October." My mother's voice cracked.
"Mom, I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry I didn't come to you sooner.
I was afraid you'd—"
"Stop." Evelyn's jaw tightened.
"Stop apologizing.
Where are you right now?"
"East side of the building.
There's a delivery alcove.
I'm behind the second door."
"Don't move." Evelyn was already walking, pulling me with her.
"I'm sending someone to you.
His name is Gerald.
He's been with me for eleven years.
You can trust him."
"How will I know it's him?"
"He'll say the word *teardrop*." She glanced down at the necklace still closed in her other hand.
"He'll know what it means."
She ended the call and stopped at a door marked STAFF ONLY.
She pushed it open without hesitating.
A tall man in a dark suit looked up from a small desk.
"Mrs.
Whitmore?"
"Gerald.
East alcove.
Second service door.
There's a woman there — her name is Sarah.
You bring her to me through the kitchen corridor.
Nobody sees you.
Nobody stops you." She pressed something into his hand.
"If anyone asks, she's catering staff who had a medical episode."
Gerald didn't ask a single question.
He was gone before the door finished closing.
Evelyn turned back to me.
"Who is Richard?" I asked.
She looked at me for a long moment.
The kind of look that is deciding something.
"He is your grandfather," she said.
"By marriage.
My late husband's younger brother."
"Is he dangerous?"
She crouched down so her eyes were level with mine.
"He has been trying to find you since before you were born," she said.
"Not because he loves you.
Because of what you represent."
"The necklace?"
"The necklace is a symbol.
What he actually wants is the estate." She closed my fingers gently around the ruby.
"Your mother is the only surviving heir on your grandfather's side.
That makes you the second.
Richard has spent twenty years making sure neither of you could prove it."
The corridor felt colder than it had a moment ago.
"He's the reason my mom ran," I said.
Evelyn stood.
Her expression had settled into something I would come to recognize over the years — not anger exactly.
Older than anger.
Quieter.
"Yes," she said.
"And he is the reason I never stopped looking."
She took my hand again and began walking toward the kitchen corridor.
We were almost there when we heard the ballroom doors open behind us.
Footsteps.
Unhurried.
May you like
Deliberate.
The man in the dark coat had followed us in.
