Chapter 2 - GOOD GIRLS FORGET
For one terrible second, Vanessa and I stared at each other.
Then she crossed the room and snatched the necklace from my hand.
“That isn’t yours.”
“It was my mom’s.”
Her face changed.
Only for a moment.
But I saw it.
Fear.
“You’re confused.”
“No.”
I pointed at the silver bird.
“It has a scratch under the wing.”
My mother had dropped it on our kitchen floor when I was four.
I remembered crying because I thought I had broken it.
Vanessa closed her fist around the pendant.
“You’re tired.”
“Dad said it disappeared in the river.”
She leaned down.
“Your father has had a very emotional day.”
“Where did you get it?”
Her smile returned.
Cold this time.
“Go back to the ballroom.”
I didn’t move.
“Clara.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Now.”
That night, I couldn’t sleep.
The wedding guests were gone.
The house was quiet.
I was lying under my blankets when my bedroom door opened.
Vanessa entered.
No knock.
She sat beside me and began fixing the ribbon in my hair even though I was already wearing pajamas.
“You embarrassed me today.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You opened my purse.”
“I saw Mom’s necklace.”
Her hand stopped.
Then she tightened the ribbon until it hurt.
“Your mother is dead.”
My eyes burned.
“Then why do you have her necklace?”
Vanessa leaned close.
“You’ve had a very difficult childhood.”
Her fingers brushed my cheek.
“You remember things incorrectly.”
“I heard you and Dad talking.”
That made her freeze.
“What did you hear?”
I should have lied.
I didn’t.
“He said if I remember that night, you lose everything.”
Vanessa stared at me.
Then she smiled.
“Good girls know when to forget.”
A floorboard creaked outside.
Vanessa looked toward the door.
The hallway was empty.
But someone had been listening.
Later, after Vanessa left, I found a folded piece of paper under my bedroom door.
Only five words were written on it.
DO NOT TRUST YOUR FATHER.
At the bottom was one letter.
A.
Arthur.
Our old butler.
The man who had worked for my mother’s family before I was born.
And beneath his initial was something even stranger.
May you like
A date.
The night my mother disappeared.
