Chapter 6: The Morning After the Clutch
My pink dress was hanging on the back of the bathroom door the next morning. Mom had steamed it the night before and I could still smell the water on the fabric. I sat on the edge of the tub and pulled on my white socks one at a time and tried to keep my feet from touching the cold tile.
That was how Mom taught me to get ready when we stayed in the estate. Quiet, early, no running in the hallway. Mr. Balanki's house woke up slow. I could hear the coffee machine hissing in the kitchen and the soft click of the wall sconces turning off as daylight came through the curtains.
I kept seeing the hallway from last night while I tied my shoe. Not the whole dinner, just the part before. I had gone to get my sweater from Mom's room and the blue light was coming from the end of the hall where Mr. Balanki's locked room was. The door was open a crack. Just enough to see the dark wood inside.
I hadn't told Mom that part yet.
In the kitchen, Mom was at the island cutting strawberries. She was back in her black dress with the white collar, hair pulled back tight. She didn't look at me when I came in, just slid a plate toward me.
"Eat fast," she whispered. "You got school."
I sat on the stool and ate while she worked. Through the pass-through window I could see into the dining room. The table was still set from last night but the candles were gone. Selene was at the far end with a coffee cup, wearing a cream sweater now, her dark hair still in that low bun. Her little light-colored clutch was on the table beside her. She held it with both hands even when she wasn't going anywhere. I watched her pick it up, open it, close it, set it down again.
She did it the same way she did last night. Both hands, fingers tight around the sides.
Mom saw me looking and nudged my plate. "Eyes down, Lily."
I looked down but I kept listening. Selene laughed at something on her phone. The sound was normal, like nothing had happened. Like no one had said anything about a card or a locked room.
After breakfast Mom walked me to the mudroom to get my backpack. The hallway to Mr. Balanki's room was on the way. The door was closed now. There was a thin strip of light under it that wasn't there last night because the door had been ajar. I remembered that clearly now. Last night it had been open two inches, maybe three, and the hallway light had made a line across the floor. Selene had come out and pulled the door partway but not all the way. She was holding the clutch against her chest with one hand and something pale was sticking out the top.
I stopped by the laundry doors and stared at that strip of light. Mom tugged my sleeve.
"Come on," she said.
In the dining room, Mr. Balanki came down the stairs. He was in a gray sweater instead of the black suit, but he still had the big silver watch on his wrist. He nodded at Mom, said good morning, and poured himself coffee. He didn't look at Selene right away. He looked at me.
I tried not to stare, but my eyes kept going back to Selene's clutch. The cream leather with the little silver clasp. Last night I thought the thing inside was a folded napkin. This morning I knew what the edge had looked like. It was thicker than paper. Cream colored, with a rounded corner and a little shine, like a hotel key card but not that. The edge had caught the blue hallway light when she shifted the clutch.
Selene noticed me looking. She smiled, the kind of smile adults give you when they want you to smile back.
"Good morning, sweetheart," she said. "Did you sleep okay?"
I nodded. My mouth was dry. I wanted to say I saw her come out of the room. I wanted to say the door was open and the card was there. Mom's hand found the back of my neck, gentle but firm.
"Answer properly," Mom said quietly.
"Yes, ma'am," I said.
Selene picked up her clutch again with both hands and tucked it under her arm. Practiced. Like she was making sure it stayed closed. As she did, the corner of something inside pressed against the leather and made a faint outline. Just for a second.
Mr. Balanki was watching from the kitchen doorway. He had his coffee in his tattooed hand and he wasn't drinking it. He watched me watch her. I felt his eyes on me and looked down at my white socks again. My shoes were already tied but I bent to fix them anyway.
He didn't ask me anything. He didn't say "What did you see?" or "What are you looking at?" He just stood there breathing slow, the way he had at the table last night. Then he set his cup down and said to Selene, very even, "You got everything you need for today?"
"Of course," she said, and tapped her clutch. "All right here."
I knew the exact moment in my head now. Selene stepping out, door still ajar behind her, cream edge visible between her fingers before she pushed it down into the clutch. The hallway was cool and blue and her heels had made no sound on the carpet. That was what I had seen. Not a guess.
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Mr. Balanki glanced at me once more, then back at Selene's hands. He didn't push. He just filed it away, like he was waiting for me to be ready to say it out loud. Mom pulled my backpack up onto my shoulders, and I understood I wasn't supposed to speak yet, not until someone safe asked me.
We walked toward the side door, and I left the dining chair empty at the table behind me.
