Chapter 8
Lucy texted me at 11:14 the next morning. I was still in the apartment, the photo of the forged filing on my phone, the locket heavy against my skin. Her message was short.
Can we talk? Not there. Diner on 6th? Just us.
I stared at it for a minute. I could hear Richard's voice in my head from the group chat. DON'T LET VICTORIA FIND OUT. I typed back, Yes, and put my jacket on. I didn't take the locket off.
The diner was two blocks down from the tower, the kind of place with vinyl booths and a coffee machine that hissed all day. It served the high-rise crowd at lunch and cab drivers at night. Lucy was already there when I walked in, in the same beige satin blouse from the night before, her hair pulled back this time. She had two coffees on the table and hadn't touched either one. Her hands were wrapped around her mug like she was cold.
She stood a little when she saw me. "Thanks for coming," she said.
I slid into the booth across from her. The waitress left us alone. Outside the window, people passed with grocery bags and strollers, and the light was flat and gray.
"I didn't know you'd want to see me," she said. She kept glancing at the door. "After last night."
"I wasn't sure I did," I said.
She nodded. She took a breath that wasn't quite steady. "Richard called me last winter. Before anything was public. He said Ethan needed someone steady nearby. Someone the family approved of. He told me to stay close. To be available."
She said it plainly, looking down at her coffee. Her voice was quiet.
"He told you to stay near Ethan," I said.
"Yes. He said it was better for Ethan. That you were... he said you were temporary." She swallowed. "He said to keep it quiet. That you were still planning the wedding and it would be messy if you knew. I didn't know how to say no to him. I've known them since I was nineteen."
I watched her hands tighten around the mug. She wasn't performing. She looked tired.
"Did you know about the papers?" I asked. "About my signature?"
Her eyes came up fast. "No. I swear, Victoria, I didn't. I thought it was just - I thought he wanted Ethan to have options. I didn't know about any signature thing until you said it on the balcony. You use my signature as a key. I didn't understand what you meant until later."
I believed her then, or most of her. There was no calculation in her face, just a kind of embarrassment that made her look younger.
Lucy's gaze dropped to my neck. I saw her expression change.
"That's not yours," she said.
My hand went automatically to the locket. The gold was warm.
"No," I said.
"That's your mom's," she said. "The engraved one. I've seen it. She wore it at the foundation lunch last spring, with the burgundy top. I thought - I thought you were wearing the diamond necklace. The teardrop one. From the engagement photos."
"It was," I said. "They switched it."
She stared at the locket for a long second. "She gave it to you?"
"She didn't give it to anyone," I said. "It was in the box with the papers. Richard had it."
Lucy let out a small, soft sound. "Of course he did." She looked out the window, then back at me. "They welcomed me while you were still picking out invitations. I told myself it wasn't my fault because they invited me. But I went. I kept going to dinners when you weren't there."
The waitress came by and refilled Lucy's mug. Neither of us spoke until she left.
"I'll tell them," Lucy said suddenly. She leaned forward. Her voice was lower but firmer. "If you need me to. I'll tell them I was there. That Richard brought me in during the wedding planning. That they told me not to tell you. I have the texts from him too. From February."
I felt my breath catch. I hadn't expected an offer.
"Why would you do that?" I asked.
"Because I don't want to be better for Ethan if it means being part of that," she said. "And because you're wearing your mom's locket and it shouldn't have been in his drawer."
I looked at her for a long time. The diner hummed around us. A bus braked outside.
"I don't trust you completely," I said honestly. My voice was even.
"I wouldn't either," she said. She gave a small, tight smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm not asking you to be friends. I'm just saying I'll say what happened if you need someone else to say it."
I nodded slowly. I felt the weight of the locket again, not as evidence now but as something that had belonged to my mother, something that had been taken and then found.
"Keep the texts," I said. "Don't delete anything."
"I won't," she said.
We sat there for another minute without talking. Two women in a diner booth with two cooling coffees, the city moving past the glass. She wasn't a villain and she wasn't a rescue. She was just someone else Richard had tried to position.
When I stood to leave, she reached out but didn't touch me. "Victoria," she said. "Be careful with him. He's going to say you misunderstood."
May you like
"I know," I said. I tucked the locket under my collar. "Thank you for telling me."
Outside, the air was cool. I walked back toward the tower with Lucy's words settling behind me, and with the one fact I hadn't had before: the locket had always been my mom's.
