Chapter 4 - THE CHARM
Mia blocked her doorway. “You’re not searching my room.”
Dad stopped in front of her. “Then tell us where Claire’s charm is.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“You knew it was in the dress,” I said. “I showed you when I sewed it in.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “You show everybody everything.”
Tessa pulled out her phone. “I have a photo from last night. Claire sent it to me when she finished the hem.”
The screen showed my dress hanging whole at 11:42 p.m. The blue ribbon was visible inside the waist.
“That only proves she had it last night,” Denise said.
“Yes,” Dad replied. “It does.”
Mia’s expression changed. She had realized he was listening to us now.
Dad didn’t force his way into her room. He asked her again to return the charm. When she refused, he turned to me.
“Let’s go. We have a ceremony to make.”
Tessa’s mother owned a small alterations shop. Tessa called her on the drive over. Dad drove while I sat in the back holding the silk, still hoping some part of it could be saved.
At a red light, Denise called Dad. He let it ring.
Tessa’s mother, Mrs. Alvarez, met us at the shop door. She spread the pieces on a cutting table and went quiet.
“I can make something from the skirt,” she said, “but not before ten.”
“We need something to wear now,” Dad said.
Mrs. Alvarez led me to a rack of finished orders. She took down a simple navy dress and held it against me. “A customer never picked this up. I can alter the shoulders in fifteen minutes.”
I tried to say thank you. My throat closed instead.
At 8:57, while Mrs. Alvarez pinned the dress, Dad reached the shipping store. The clerk confirmed an express envelope had been sent to Westbridge. She couldn’t disclose its contents over the phone, but she had security footage and could speak to him in person.
Then my phone rang.
The caller ID read WESTBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.
May you like
I answered.
A woman said, “Claire, I’m calling because your withdrawal reached us this morning. There’s something about it that doesn’t match your application.”
