Chapter 3 - The Bracelet in My Drawer
By the time we returned, three people were waiting outside my room.
Luca.
Isabella.
And Victor Hale, the estate manager.
Victor held a small velvet box.
I knew something was wrong before he opened it.
Inside lay a diamond bracelet I had seen on Isabella’s wrist the night before.
“It was in your dresser,” he said.
My fingers slipped on the crutches.
“No.”
Isabella folded her arms.
“I didn’t want to believe it either.”
Luca looked at Victor.
“Why were you searching her room?”
“Miss Rossi reported missing jewelry.”
“Before or after Emma left for the doctor?”
Victor hesitated.
“After.”
Mrs. Alvarez stepped forward.
“I locked that room myself this morning.”
“You have a key,” Victor said.
“So do you.”
His face tightened.
I looked at Luca.
“I didn’t take it.”
Isabella laughed softly.
“Of course you didn’t. Just like you didn’t trip.”
“Enough,” Luca said.
She stared at him.
“You’re choosing a stranger over your future wife?”
“I’m asking why you searched an employee’s bedroom without telling me.”
“She stole from me.”
“Then why did you text her a photograph instead of calling the police?”
The hallway went quiet.
I hadn’t realized Mrs. Alvarez had sent him the message.
Isabella recovered quickly.
“I was giving her a chance to return it.”
“From an urgent care waiting room?”
Victor shut the box.
“Perhaps we should discuss this privately.”
“No,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
My heart hammered.
“If you’re accusing me, do it where I can hear.”
Luca stepped aside so I could enter my room.
Everything had been touched.
My mother’s photograph lay facedown on the dresser.
That hurt more than the clothes on the bed.
I set the frame upright with a shaking hand.
“Who found it?”
“Victor,” Isabella said.
Victor said, “Miss Rossi directed me to the drawer.”
Luca turned toward her.
“How did you know which drawer?”
“I didn’t. I told him to check all of them.”
Neither man spoke.
Then Luca told Victor to preserve the hallway security footage and the electronic lock records.
“All of it. Nobody deletes anything.”
Victor nodded too quickly.
Isabella walked out without another word.
Luca offered me a guest room in the main house.
“I want a lock she can’t open,” I said.
“You’ll have one.”
As Mrs. Alvarez helped me gather a few things, my phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
May you like
There used to be another girl in your room.
Ask what happened to Nora.
