Chapter 1 - YOU THIEF
Margaret Bennett swung her handbag before Claire understood why.
The heavy leather bag struck Claire across the shoulder and side.
Claire lost her balance.
She fell hard onto the living-room floor and immediately curled around her belly.
“YOU THIEF!”
Claire looked up.
“What?”
Margaret stepped closer.
Raised the handbag again.
Claire covered herself.
“STOP! I DIDN’T STEAL ANYTHING!”
“LIAR!”
The second swing struck Claire’s raised forearm and shoulder.
Not her stomach.
Still enough to send fear through her entire body.
Then Claire felt warmth against her thigh.
She froze.
Reached down.
Pulled her hand back.
A small streak of blood touched her fingertips.
“No…”
She grabbed her belly.
“MY BABY!”
Margaret’s face changed.
The handbag lowered.
The front door flew open.
Daniel rushed inside.
“CLAIRE?!”
He dropped beside her.
Claire clung to him.
Daniel saw the blood.
Then looked at Margaret.
“What did you do to my wife?!”
Margaret backed away.
“She stole from me.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“My diamond.”
Claire was crying too hard to answer.
Daniel called emergency services.
Margaret kept talking.
“The Bennett diamond is gone. She was alone upstairs yesterday. She took it.”
Daniel shouted:
“STOP TALKING.”
Margaret actually stopped.
At the hospital, doctors evaluated Claire.
The bleeding was limited.
The baby’s heartbeat was reassuring.
There were concerns that required monitoring, but no catastrophic injury.
Claire cried anyway.
Every monitor alarm terrified her.
Daniel sat beside the bed.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I should have been there.”
Claire looked at him.
“Your mother thinks I stole something.”
He nodded.
“What diamond?”
Daniel went quiet.
Claire knew that expression.
A family secret approaching.
Then he said:
“My grandmother’s engagement diamond.”
“How much?”
Daniel hesitated.
“About two hundred thousand.”
Claire stared.
“And your mother thinks I stole it?”
“She says the stone is missing from the ring.”
Claire looked at him.
“Was the ring broken?”
“No.”
“Then how does a diamond just disappear?”
Daniel had no answer.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from the family jeweler.
Daniel read it.
His face changed.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward Claire.
Appointment history:
MARGARET BENNETT — PRIVATE STONE REMOVAL AND RESET CONSULTATION.
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Date:
three months earlier.
