Chương 8
Maya looked down.
Elodie thought of Julian glancing at the gold chains.
“Did you hear what she told him before I came in?”
“No. Noelle did.”
“Is Noelle telling the truth?”
“I think so.”
“Did she steal the charm?”
Another silence.
“I think it caught on her bracelet.”
“And then?”
“And then she realized it in the car.”
“Why didn’t she give it back?”
“Marissa said returning it immediately would make her look guilty.”
“So she kept it to look innocent.”
“Yes.”
“That’s stupid.”
“It was extremely stupid.”
Elodie almost smiled.
“Will Noelle give us the recording without a deal?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ask her.”
“Elodie, there are lawyers—”
“Everyone keeps using lawyers because they don’t want to say what happened.”
“That is one reason people use lawyers.”
“I need the video.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
Elodie looked at her reflection in the black piano beside them. She looked small, pale, and furious.
“I don’t know yet.”
Kira was quiet.
Then she said, “That may be the first honest thing anyone has said this week.”
Maya’s phone showed eleven missed calls when they ended.
Six were from Elodie’s security officer.
Three were from Leah.
Two were from Gabriel.
Elodie returned to the main building and found her father in the principal’s office.
He did not speak until they were inside the car.
The partition rose between them and the driver.
“What were you thinking?”
Elodie looked out the window.
“I asked you a question.”
“I was thinking no one listens when I ask normally.”
“So you concealed your location again, borrowed another student’s phone, and contacted an adult involved in an active legal matter.”
“She apologized.”
“That does not make what you did safe.”
“She told me why she laughed.”
“I don’t care why she laughed.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because I laughed at Sofia last year.”
The sentence stopped him.
Elodie had not planned to say it.
Sofia Alvarez had transferred into their class in October. During a presentation on ancient Egypt, she pronounced pharaoh as “fair-oh,” though Mr. Harris had said it twice. A boy behind Elodie whispered something, and Elodie laughed.
Sofia heard.
Elodie apologized after class. Sofia said it was fine. It was not fine. They had barely spoken since.
“I knew it was mean,” Elodie said. “I still laughed.”
Gabriel looked down at his hands.
“That is not the same.”
“No. There wasn’t a camera.”
“You were not twenty-eight years old.”
“So?”
“So adults are responsible for the power they use.”
“You have more power than all of them.”
The car stopped at a light.
Gabriel’s reflection appeared faintly in the window beside hers.
“I know.”
It was the first time he had said it without defense.
Noelle’s attorney delivered the missing charm to Mercer House that evening. The charm was sealed in a plastic evidence bag. A microscopic fiber from Noelle’s jacket remained caught in the clasp, supporting her claim that it had snagged accidentally.
She also surrendered the full video.
The recording began twenty-two seconds before Elodie entered.
Marissa stood beside the central cabinet while Noelle tested the angle of her phone.
Julian said, “We can hold general traffic for another ten minutes.”
Marissa looked toward the entrance, where Elodie’s beige coat had just appeared beyond the glass.
“Not if children are wandering through the frame.”
Julian turned.
Marissa added, “Could you move her? I don’t want this looking like a department store.”
Julian walked toward Elodie.
The rest unfolded as she remembered.
There was no confusion.
No safety concern.
No restricted sign near the door.
Just a woman arranging the world behind her face.
Gabriel watched the recording twice in his study. Thomas joined by video. Leah stood near the fireplace. Elodie sat on the rug because no one had invited her to the meeting and no one had asked her to leave.
After the second viewing, Gabriel said, “Release it.”
Thomas looked stricken. “The charm.”
“We do not mention the charm.”
“If Ms. Graves’s recording becomes public, she may be asked why she was filming.”
“That is her problem.”
“It becomes ours if footage shows her hand near a piece later found missing.”
Leah said, “We can release Mercer House security footage instead. It contains the same audio from a wider angle.”
“It shows the card,” Thomas replied.
“The card is already compromised,” Gabriel said.
Elodie touched the pocket where she no longer carried it. Security had replaced the family credentials worldwide within forty-eight hours.
Thomas rubbed his forehead.
“Releasing the footage will destroy Marissa.”
“No,” Elodie said.
The adults looked at her.
“She did it. The video shows it.”
Gabriel’s expression was unreadable. “What distinction are you making?”
“Destroying her would be everything after.”
No one spoke.
Elodie continued, though her voice had begun to shake.
“People will call her house. They’ll call her parents. They’ll find pictures from when she was a kid. They’ll threaten her. They’re already doing that to me, and I didn’t do anything.”
“She lied publicly,” Gabriel said.
“So show the truth.”
“That is what releasing the video does.”
“You want to win.”
“Yes.”
The word came too quickly.
Elodie looked at him.
He leaned back in his chair.
“Yes,” he repeated, quieter. “I want to win.”
“Mom hated winning.”
“Your mother was extremely competitive.”
“Not like this.”
A shadow of something almost amused crossed Leah’s face.
Gabriel removed his glasses.
“What do you want?”
Elodie had imagined being asked. The real question frightened her.
She looked at Thomas on the screen. He had not returned to Mercer House since taking leave. Behind him was a plain kitchen with a refrigerator covered in children’s drawings. One said GRANDPA in purple crayon.
She looked at Leah, who had not slept properly in a week.
She looked at her father, who had turned the collection into transport cases because fear was easier to manage when it had locks.
“I want the exhibition to open.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Gabriel said, “No.”
May you like
“You asked.”
“And I answered.”
