Chapter 3 3

Preston Blackburn walked into the foyer like he owned the air everyone else was breathing. His suit was tailored to within an inch of its life, not a crease in sight.

He stopped when he saw the clothes scattered on the floor. His gaze moved to Dominique, then to the security guards, and finally, it landed on Aurelia.

For a second, his expression softened. Just a fraction. A memory of who they used to be.

Then Dominique launched herself at him.

"Preston!" she sobbed, burying her face in his chest. "Thank god you're here. It's awful. She stole it. She stole your grandmother's ring!"

Preston stiffened. He peeled Dominique off him gently and looked at the floor. The sapphire ring sat there, accusingly bright against the white marble.

He picked it up. He turned it over in his fingers.

"Aurelia?" he asked. His voice wasn't angry. It was disappointed. Which was worse. "Is this true? If you needed money... you could have just asked me."

The pity in his voice hit Aurelia like a physical blow. It knocked the wind out of her. He believed it. He actually believed she would stoop this low.

Something inside her snapped. The hurt burned away, leaving behind a cold, hard clarity. It was the focus she found in the operating room when blood was spraying and monitors were screaming.

She stepped over her scattered clothes. She walked right up to Preston.

"Give me the ring," she said.

"Aurelia, don't make this worse," Preston said, pulling his hand back.

"Give. Me. The. Ring."

She snatched it from his palm before he could react. Catherine gasped. The guards stepped forward, but Aurelia held the ring up to the light streaming through the transom window.

"If I stole this," she said, her voice cutting through the room, "and if it had been bouncing around in my bag with my keys and water bottle, the gold band would have micro-scratches. Gold is soft."

She tilted the ring. "It's pristine."

She ran her thumb over the sapphire. She brought her finger down and showed it to Preston.

"See this residue?" she asked.

Preston squinted. There was a faint, white smudge on her fingertip.

"It's white powder," Aurelia said. She rubbed it between her fingers and sniffed it. "Ammonia and chalk. It's silver polish."

She turned on her heel and pointed at the housekeeper, Mrs. Higgins, who was hovering by the kitchen door, wringing her hands in her apron.

"Mrs. Higgins," Aurelia said sharply. "You polished the silverware this morning, didn't you?"

Mrs. Higgins jumped. "I... yes, Miss Aurelia. For the party."

Aurelia walked over to her. She grabbed the woman's hand. Mrs. Higgins tried to pull away, but Aurelia held firm.

"Look at her cuticles," Aurelia said to the room. "White residue. The same polish."

She turned back to Dominique. "If I stole it, my fingerprints would be on it. Maybe yours, Preston. But I bet if we swab this ring right now, we'll find Mrs. Higgins' prints all over it. And underneath that, a layer of fresh polish."

Dominique's face faltered. The sobbing victim act cracked. "That proves nothing! Mrs. Higgins probably cleaned it!"

"You don't clean platinum and sapphire with silver polish," Aurelia said. "It damages the setting. Mrs. Higgins knows that. She's been here twenty years. Unless she was in a rush. Unless someone told her to grab it and plant it immediately."

Preston looked at Mrs. Higgins. The woman was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering.

"Mrs. Higgins?" Preston asked.

"I... I didn't want to..." the housekeeper stammered, her eyes darting to Dominique.

"This is slander!" Catherine shrieked. "Preston, she's manipulating you! She's always been jealous of Dominique!"

Aurelia dropped Mrs. Higgins' hand. She pulled her phone from her pocket.

"You know what else is interesting?" Aurelia said, tapping the screen. "I set up the smart home system in this house three years ago. You guys never revoked my credentials. And I always build in a back door. For emergencies."

She opened the app. She tapped on the 'Library' camera feed history.

"Let's see what happened twenty minutes ago."