Chapter 4

In my past life, on the day I finally got the hotel security footage and thought I could clear my name, my mother threatened me the same way.

"Katie, your brother is my whole life. If you do this, you might as well be killing me. I'd rather just drop dead right now."

I caved. I deleted the video.

And the next day she was the first one cursing me, whipping the crowd up all over again.

So this time, I wasn't going to cave.

Right then the operator's voice came through the phone.

"Hello, 911, what's your emergency?"

Afraid of what I'd say, Zachery threw himself at me, clawing for my phone.

"Katherine, what the hell, who said you could call the police? Give me that phone!"

I dodged him easily and raised my voice, each word clear and deliberate.

"I'd like to report a crime."

"Someone stole gold jewelry worth over a hundred thousand and deliberately framed another person for it. We're at the Sea Crown Banquet Hall. Please come quickly."

When the call ended, the room went dead silent.

My mother forgot all about the people around us and lunged to rake her nails down my face.

But before she could touch me, Zachery's wife shoved her back.

She'd spent years running a company and had seen every kind of person there was.

Zachery's panic, and the way my parents and older sister kept shielding him, had already told her everything: Zachery had taken the locket, lied to her, and my family knew and had covered for him.

I was the only one who'd said it out loud.

She made up her mind fast.

"No one touches Katherine before the police get here!"

"And the rest of you, no one leaves. This gets settled today."

At that hard order, all four of them—my parents, my older sister, and Zachery—went white.

Zachery was still scrambling.

"Nita, there's no need to drag the cops into this. This is a family matter at most. You don't air your dirty laundry. Blowing it up doesn't do any of us any good!"

My mother nodded along.

"Exactly, whatever it is we can talk it out at home. Don't embarrass yourself here."

His wife refused.

"No. Since Zach says Katherine framed him, we're getting to the bottom of it."

"I won't let anyone smooth this over. The innocent one is getting justice."

The weight lifted off my chest.

I'd thought she might be too worried about saving face and would handle it quietly.

I hadn't expected her to see it all so clearly.

Ten minutes later, the police arrived.

They showed their badges, and I went to meet them and laid out exactly what had happened.

The two officers nodded and went straight to the restaurant manager for the security footage.

The whole group followed them to the security room.

Inside, the guard pulled up the banquet hall footage from that day.

Everyone crowded around the screen.

Zachery, my parents, and my older sister hung back behind the crowd, their faces getting uglier by the second.

"Manager, pull up the footage from around when the locket went missing. What time was that?"

The officer looked at me.

I answered at once.

"Between eleven and eleven thirty!"

The manager nodded and scrolled the timestamp back.

On the screen, Zachery's wife carried the baby into the banquet hall.

Then she handed the baby off to Zachery and went to greet the guests.

The gold locket was there the whole time, around the baby's neck.

Until ten minutes later, when Zachery carried the baby out of the hall.

He held the baby up and played with him for a bit.

Then, while no one was watching, he slipped into the open storage room with the baby.

By the time he came back out, the gold locket around the baby's neck was gone.

The whole security room went quiet in an instant.

Every eye turned to Zachery at once.

The same people who'd believed him a moment ago all turned on him now, contempt and blame in every look.

Zachery's face was ashen.

"No... it's not like that."

"I was just holding him. Maybe it's the angle."

The officer's expression didn't move.

"The angle?"

"Then explain why the locket around the baby's neck was gone the second you came back out."

Zachery had no answer, and his wife's face went cold and hard.

She looked at him, her voice like ice.

"Zach, is there anything else you want to explain?"

His lips trembled.

"Nita, I... I didn't mean to."

"Money's just been tight lately, and I didn't have enough to put together our third anniversary, and I didn't want to let you down, so I..."

At those words, the last trace of feeling in her eyes vanished.

"Liar!"

"Even now, you're still lying!"

"Say it. Say why you took our son's locket. Was it to pay off gambling debts? Lie to me one more time and we're getting divorced!"

Zachery bowed his head and said nothing, which was as good as admitting all of it.

She was done, utterly. She shook her head.

"Go home and pack your things. I want a divorce."