Chapter 2 - Eleven Days Before the Wedding
Evelyn folded the note before Vanessa entered.
“What are you doing?”
Vanessa stood in the doorway.
“Putting away the ring.”
“At ten o’clock at night?”
“The jeweler returned it this afternoon.”
Vanessa looked toward the safe.
“What else is in there?”
“Grant’s personal documents.”
“You know the combination?”
“Yes.”
“And I don’t.”
Evelyn closed the safe.
“That’s something you should discuss with Grant.”
Vanessa gave a small laugh.
“You always have the perfect answer.”
“I try to have the useful one.”
“You’ve been useful for nine years, haven’t you?”
Evelyn heard the insult beneath the sentence.
She stepped toward the door.
Vanessa blocked her.
“Do you love him?”
The question was so direct that Evelyn stopped breathing.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“He’s my employer.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only answer you’re entitled to.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You live in his house.”
“I have staff quarters.”
“You know his passwords.”
“For household accounts.”
“You know what he eats. When he sleeps. What makes him angry. What makes him laugh.”
“That’s my job.”
“Is it also your job to look at him like that?”
Evelyn stared at her.
For years, she had refused to name what lived quietly inside her.
Naming it would make it real.
And real things could be lost.
“I have never crossed a line with Grant.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Evelyn walked around her.
Vanessa caught her wrist.
“Eleven days,” she whispered. “Then I become his wife.”
Evelyn looked at Vanessa’s hand until she released her.
“I know.”
“Good.”
Evelyn left.
But the note remained hidden inside her sleeve.
She did not sleep.
At two in the morning, she sat in her small apartment above the east wing garage and read Grace’s words again.
Tell him the truth.
What truth?
Grace had died three years before Evelyn began working for Grant.
They had never met.
So how could Grace have known her name?
At 6:10 the next morning, Evelyn went to Grant’s study.
The safe was already open.
The velvet ring box was gone.
So was every document that had been underneath it.
Grant appeared behind her.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked at the safe.
“You closed it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Grant.”
“I know. Stupid question.”
Security footage showed nobody entering the study overnight.
At least, that was what the system claimed.
But seven minutes of footage were missing.
2:13 to 2:20 a.m.
Grant called his security director.
Vanessa came downstairs halfway through the conversation.
“What’s happening?”
“Someone opened my safe.”
Her face registered perfect surprise.
“Was anything stolen?”
“My mother’s ring.”
Vanessa looked at Evelyn.
“How awful.”
Evelyn felt cold.
Grant spent the morning with security.
At noon, Evelyn received an envelope.
No stamp.
No return address.
It had been pushed beneath the staff entrance.
Inside was a photograph.
Grace Calloway stood beside a much younger woman.
Evelyn recognized the woman immediately.
Her mother.
Margaret Harper.
On the back were four words.
ASK YOUR MOTHER ABOUT 1998.
Evelyn called Margaret.
Her mother answered on the fourth ring.
“Mom?”
“Evie? Is everything okay?”
“Did you know Grace Calloway?”
Silence.
“Mom?”
“Where did you hear that name?”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
“So you did.”
“Evelyn, listen to me.”
“Why is there a photograph of you together?”
Another silence.
Then Margaret said something Evelyn had never heard from her mother before.
Fear.
“Get out of that house.”
“What?”
“Leave the Calloway estate today.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone found that photograph, they know.”
“Know what?”
Margaret began crying.
“Mom?”
“I should have told you years ago.”
“Told me what?”
A sound came through the phone.
A knock.
Margaret stopped speaking.
“Mom?”
Another knock.
“Don’t come here,” Margaret whispered.
The line went dead.
Evelyn called back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She grabbed her keys.
Grant intercepted her at the front hall.
“Where are you going?”
“My mother’s.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll drive.”
“No.”
“Evelyn—”
“I need to do this alone.”
She was already opening the door when Grant said her name.
She turned.
He held something in his hand.
The missing gold ring.
“Where did you find that?”
Grant’s face had gone pale.
“It was on my pillow.”
Evelyn stared.
“There was something underneath it.”
He handed her a small card.
Evelyn read the handwritten message.
THE WRONG WOMAN IS WEARING YOUR RING.
May you like
Then a scream came from upstairs.
It was Vanessa.
