Chapter 2 – THE SHADOW WITH THE SHINY BRACELET

“The lady with the shiny bracelet.”

Grace’s words hung in the air, heavy and impossible to ignore.

Marcus lunged forward, grabbing the silver watch from the table. “Grace is confused. It was dark. She was half-asleep—”

“Don’t you dare interrupt my daughter,” Luca growled. He closed the distance between them in three strides, grabbing Marcus by the collar of his suit. “Who were you yelling at, Marcus? Who was at the top of the stairs?”

Marcus pressed his lips together. A vein bulged in his neck. “It was an accident, Luca. Leave it alone. For the sake of the family, leave it alone!”

“My wife is dead!” Luca roared.

Vanessa stepped backward, bumping into a chair. “Luca, you’re scaring the guests. Let’s handle this in private.”

“Nobody is leaving this room,” Luca commanded. His security men at the doors immediately locked them.

I knelt down to Grace’s eye level. She was frightened, but she was holding her grandmother’s hand tightly. Eleanor looked down at her granddaughter with a fierce, protective pride.

“Grace,” I asked softly. “Do you remember what the bracelet looked like?”

Vanessa snapped. “Emily, step away from the child! You are the maid!”

“I’m the person who actually listens to her,” I shot back.

Luca glanced at me, nodding once. It was all the permission I needed.

Grace reached into the small pocket of her blue dress. “I don’t just remember it,” she whispered. “I found a piece of it.”

She opened her tiny palm.

Resting in the center of her hand was a single, heavy silver charm. It was shaped like a crescent moon, encrusted with tiny emeralds.

Eleanor gasped loudly. She recognized it instantly.

“That’s Clara’s charm,” Eleanor said, her voice shaking. “Catherine gave that to Clara for her birthday three years ago.”

Aunt Clara. Luca and Marcus’s aunt. The woman who sat silently at the end of the table, sipping her water. She was the matriarch who controlled the family’s trust funds.

All eyes turned to the elderly woman in the black velvet dress.

Clara calmly set her water glass down. She didn’t look panicked. She looked annoyed.

“The child is a thief as well as a liar,” Clara said smoothly. “I lost that charm months ago.”

“Mommy was holding it when she fell,” Grace said, crying now. “I found it on the rug the next morning before the police came. I hid it in my drawing box.”

Clara stood up. “I will not be interrogated by a maid, an estranged mother-in-law, and a traumatized child.”

“Sit down, Aunt Clara,” Luca said.

Clara looked at him, her eyes cold. “I am trying to protect you, Luca. Catherine was stealing from us. I went to confront her that night. She became hysterical and tripped.”

Answer one: Clara was the one at the top of the stairs.

Open two: Was Catherine really stealing? And why did Vanessa know about Grace’s promise?

I looked at Vanessa. She was standing entirely too still.

“If Aunt Clara was the one on the stairs,” I said aloud, looking straight at Vanessa. “Why did Grace make a promise to you, Vanessa? You weren’t even dating Mr. Moretti yet.”

Vanessa’s eyes darted toward the locked doors.

Grace hid behind my leg. “Vanessa saw me take the charm,” she whimpered. “She said if I ever told Daddy, he would go to jail.”

Vanessa’s facade finally cracked. She lunged for her designer purse on the side table.

But as she grabbed the bag, it tipped over.

Spilling out onto the hardwood floor wasn’t lipstick or a phone.

It was a stack of one-way plane tickets to Switzerland.

And they were booked for tomorrow.

TITLE: The Tickets To Switzerland

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