Chapter 4: The Bracelet She Said I Took
We stood in the entryway and nobody moved. Daniel had his hand on the front door but hadn't closed it. The boys were behind me on the stairs, Lucas with his hand still twisted in the side of my jumpsuit.
Victoria stood by the kitchen island with her arms crossed. She wasn't crying anymore.
"You said I took your bracelet," I said. My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to. "Then let's look for it."
Victoria blinked. "Excuse me?"
I turned to Daniel. "Not just you and her. All three of us together. Right now. With my suitcase open so you both see it. If I took anything, it's in there."
Daniel looked at me, then at Victoria. He gave a short nod. "That's fair. Let's do it."
Victoria's mouth tightened. "Daniel, she had all morning to hide it. Searching her suitcase now proves nothing."
"Then it proves I don't have it on me," I said. "And after that we search my room. Together. You open every drawer."
I pulled the worn brown suitcase onto the entry table by the front door. The metal corners scraped the wood. My left hand still had the yellow glove on. I peeled it off and set it deliberately beside the suitcase, palm up. The rubber was damp inside.
Daniel stood on one side of the table. Victoria came slowly to the other.
I undid both latches. They clicked loud in the quiet house.
Inside were only my clothes. Two navy jumpsuits folded flat, three white t-shirts, jeans, socks, a zip lock with my toothbrush and face wash, and the paperback I'd been reading on breaks. I lifted each piece and laid it on the table.
"Check the pockets," Victoria said quickly.
I turned every pocket inside out. Nothing.
I unzipped the inner lining pocket. Empty. I lifted the whole suitcase so they could see the bottom.
Daniel reached out and ran his hand along the inside seam himself. He shook his head once. "It's not here."
Victoria didn't look at the suitcase. She looked at me. "Of course it's not here now. She said herself she was leaving. She would have mailed it or had someone pick it up."
"Then why would I still be walking down the street with it?" I said. "If I was going to fence your bracelet, I wouldn't pull my whole life behind me on the sidewalk."
She ignored that and turned toward the hall. "Search her room then. The bathroom trash. That's where these people always put things. Under the sink, taped behind the toilet."
Daniel's jaw tightened at the words these people but he followed her. I followed them both, leaving the open suitcase on the table where the boys could see it.
My staff room was at the back by the laundry, small with one window facing the side yard. The bed was already stripped — I'd stripped it that morning when she told me to be out by three. My duffel was gone, that was the suitcase now.
Victoria went straight to the closet and pushed my spare sneakers aside with her shoe. "Look."
Daniel opened the closet properly, moved the shoes with his hands, checked the shelf. He knelt and checked under the bed. He pulled out the plastic bin where I kept cleaning supplies and winter gloves. He dumped it gently onto the floor. Nothing but spray bottles and rags.
Victoria moved to the little bathroom attached to the room. She yanked the cabinet under the sink open. "Check the trash can."
It was empty. I'd taken the trash out that morning as part of my last chores.
She reached behind the toilet tank and ran her hand along it, as if expecting tape.
"Victoria," Daniel said. His voice was flat. "Stop."
"She could have slipped it into the boys' room. Or the kitchen," she said, standing up fast. "She had access to everything. You know how she is with the boys, Daniel. She tells them stories. Of course they will say whatever she wants them to say."
I stood in the doorway with my hands at my sides. "I didn't tell Lucas to say anything. He ran after me on his own."
"You emotionally manipulated them," Victoria said, pointing at me. Her calm was cracking at the edges. "You've been turning them against me for months because you wanted to stay. You knew I was going to let you go. So you coached them to lie about being locked up and to say I —"
"We didn't coach anything," Daniel cut in. "Lucas said you made them stay hidden. He said you told them you'd send them away. That's a very specific thing for a five-year-old to make up."
Victoria stared at him. Then she smoothed her hair and her voice went quiet again. "Well. If the bracelet isn't on her, then she already got rid of it. That's even worse. That means she's got a buyer. You should be calling the police, not searching her underwear drawer."
Daniel looked down at the empty bin on the floor, at my folded clothes on the entry table visible through the hallway.
He was quiet for a long breath.
"No bracelet in her suitcase," he said finally, more to himself than to us. "No bracelet in her room."
He looked up at Victoria, then at me.
"We have cameras," he said. "Front door, hallway, garage side. Cloud saves for thirty days. If someone went in and out with something, we'll see it."
Victoria went still.
May you like
I felt my heart thump once, hard, against my jumpsuit.
"Let's look," I said.
