Chương 2
I’m fine.
No problem.
Sorry.
Instead she touched the torn seam of her apron.
“My arm hurts where she grabbed me.”
Victoria’s mouth opened.
Emily heard herself continue.
“And I want to go home.”
The room changed again.
Until that moment everyone had been waiting for Adrian Hale to decide what happened next.
Emily had not realized she could make a decision, too.
Adrian gave one slow nod.
“Of course.”
Victoria said, “She cannot just leave in the middle of—”
Adrian turned.
Victoria stopped.
He did not raise his voice.
“Finish that sentence carefully.”
Her nostrils flared.
Emily looked away.
She did not want to watch their marriage break open in front of her. She did not want to be part of whatever came after. She wanted her phone, her coat, her purse, and the old Honda Civic waiting beyond the service entrance.
Most of all, she wanted to go back fifteen minutes and refuse when Victoria had called her into the gallery.
Teresa finally set the tray down.
“I’ll get your things,” she told Emily.
“I can get them.”
“Let me.”
It was the first kindness anyone had offered her since the bracelet hit the floor.
Emily nodded.
Maya stepped toward the security console.
“I’m preserving the footage.”
Victoria’s head snapped around.
“Maya.”
Maya paused.
“You work for my husband.”
Maya looked at Adrian.
Adrian said, “Preserve it.”
Victoria stared at him for another second before turning away.
Her diamond earrings trembled slightly.
That was when Emily understood something she would remember much later.
Victoria was afraid.
It did not make Emily feel better.
Teresa returned with Emily’s coat and purse.
Emily took them without putting the coat on. Her fingers would not cooperate with the sleeves anyway.
She walked toward the service corridor.
Luis moved aside.
One of the luncheon guests, a woman Emily recognized as the wife of a real estate developer, whispered, “Emily, I’m so sorry.”
Emily stopped.
The woman looked startled, as though she had not expected to be heard.
Emily had served her champagne twice that morning.
“You believed her,” Emily said.
The woman’s face tightened.
It was not a cruel observation. Emily did not say it loudly.
That made it land harder.
Then Emily walked away.
Outside, the day was offensively bright.
The lawn service was trimming the hedges along the east drive, and the rhythmic mechanical buzz continued as if nothing unusual had happened. A delivery truck had stopped near the gate. Someone on the crew laughed about something Emily could not hear.
She reached her car before she realized she was still wearing the maid headpiece.
She yanked it off and threw it onto the passenger seat.
Then she sat behind the wheel.
Her hands shook.
She placed them flat against her thighs.
One breath.
Another.
She could still hear the bracelet hitting the marble.
After several minutes, someone knocked gently on the passenger window.
Emily jumped.
Maya stood outside.
Emily lowered the glass two inches.
“I’m sorry,” Maya said.
“For what?”
Maya looked back toward the mansion.
“For not stopping it sooner.”
Emily stared at her.
“You knew?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
“Not that.”
“Then what?”
Maya hesitated.
Emily almost laughed.
Of course everyone in that house hesitated before saying anything important.
Maya rested her hand lightly on the roof of the car.
“I knew Mrs. Hale had been asking questions about you.”
“What questions?”
“Whether you’d been in certain rooms. Whether anything had gone missing on your shifts. Whether you ever used the front entrance.”
Emily felt a cold pressure behind her ribs.
“How long?”
“A few weeks.”
“And nobody told me.”
Maya looked ashamed.
“I didn’t think it was going to become this.”
Emily raised the window.
Maya stepped back before it closed.
Emily started the car.
She did not remember most of the drive home.
At one red light she looked down and discovered that a corner of her white apron was still visible beneath her coat.
She pulled the apron off at the next gas station.
The torn pocket hung crookedly.
Emily folded it.
Then unfolded it.
Then shoved it into the back seat.
She lived twenty-seven minutes from the Hale mansion in a second-floor apartment above a dentist’s office, where the rent had gone up twice in three years and the kitchen drawer beneath the sink had to be lifted before it would close.
Her cousin Lacey was sitting at the small dining table with a laptop open when Emily came in.
Lacey looked at the clock.
“You’re home early.”
Emily dropped her purse onto the chair.
Lacey looked at her face.
“What happened?”
Emily went to the refrigerator.
She opened it.
Stared at a carton of eggs, leftover noodles, mustard, half a lemon, and three cans of sparkling water.
Then she closed it again.
“I got accused of stealing a diamond bracelet.”
Lacey blinked.
“What?”
“Mrs. Hale put it in my apron.”
“Put it—what?”
“There are cameras.”
Lacey pushed the laptop aside.
“Sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
“Fine.”
“I want coffee.”
“It’s four-thirty.”
“I know what time it is.”
Emily pulled the coffee maker forward.
Her hand hit a spoon, which clattered into the sink.
She swore.
Lacey watched her.
“Did they fire you?”
“No.”
“Did the police come?”
“No.”
“Did she apologize?”
Emily stopped.
A laugh came out of her before she could prevent it.
It sounded wrong.
She covered her face with both hands.
Lacey got up.
Emily shook her head before her cousin could touch her.
“Don’t.”
Lacey stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
Emily dropped her hands.
“She stood there and told people I stole from her. She pulled my pocket open like I was—”
Her voice cracked.
She turned toward the counter.
Lacey waited.
Emily pressed both palms against the laminate.
“I thought when they showed the video I’d feel better.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
The coffee maker clicked.
Emily stared at it.
“I just kept thinking they saw it happen.”
May you like
“What?”
“They saw the bracelet come out of my pocket before they saw how it got there.”
