Chapter 1 - THE EARRINGS ON THE TABLE
The slap came before Emily could understand what she was being accused of.
Vanessa seized a fistful of her long dark hair, yanked her forward, and struck her hard across the face.
Emily staggered into the cream-colored sofa.
“YOU STOLE ASHLEY’S EARRINGS!”
The room blurred for half a second.
Emily tasted metal. When she touched her lower lip, a tiny streak of blood came away on her fingertip.
Behind Vanessa stood Ashley, eighteen, blonde, beautiful, and strangely calm.
Emily looked toward her father.
Robert stood near the fireplace, frozen.
“Dad?”
Vanessa still had one hand locked around Emily’s arm.
Emily shook her head.
“I DIDN’T TAKE THEM!”
Ashley stepped forward.
Her eyes moved to Emily’s cream handbag on the coffee table.
“SEARCH HER BAG.”
Vanessa snatched it, ripped it open, and dumped everything onto the polished wood.
Wallet.
Phone.
Lip balm.
Keys.
Receipts.
Nothing else.
Vanessa dug through every pocket.
Her fury weakened.
“THEY’RE NOT HERE.”
Emily looked at Ashley.
For the first time, Ashley’s confident smile disappeared.
Robert noticed.
Then he noticed something else.
Ashley was clutching her own black handbag against her hip.
“Ashley.”
She stepped back.
Robert moved faster than Emily had ever seen him move.
He took the bag, opened it, and turned it upside down.
A compact mirror hit the table.
Then a phone charger.
A wallet.
And two diamond earrings.
They landed with a sharp metallic clink.
Everyone froze.
Robert stared at them.
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
Vanessa slowly turned toward her daughter.
“WHY WERE THE EARRINGS IN YOUR BAG?”
Ashley went pale.
Emily expected panic.
Instead, Ashley’s expression changed into something almost disappointed.
She looked directly at Emily.
“You really want to pretend you don’t know?”
Emily’s chest tightened.
“Know what?”
Ashley nodded toward the hallway.
“Ask her about the upstairs study.”
Robert frowned.
“What about it?”
Ashley folded her arms.
“Emily was in there last night.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
“No.”
Vanessa immediately moved beside Ashley again.
Robert raised a hand.
“Enough. What are you talking about?”
Ashley’s eyes never left Emily.
“The safe.”
Robert went still.
Emily knew the safe.
It had belonged to her mother, Laura, who died seven years earlier. Robert had never removed it from the built-in cabinet in the study. He said it contained old family papers and things he could not bring himself to sort.
No one used it.
At least, Emily thought no one did.
Robert left the living room.
The others followed.
Upstairs, he entered the code and pulled open the cabinet door.
The safe itself was already unlocked.
Robert stared inside.
A stack of folders had been disturbed.
A velvet jewelry case lay open.
Vanessa whispered, “What’s missing?”
Robert pushed papers aside with shaking hands.
Then his face drained.
Emily stepped closer.
“Dad?”
He turned toward her.
“The trust documents.”
“What trust documents?”
Robert did not answer.
May you like
Ashley did.
“The ones your mother left you.”
