Chapter 3 - REBECCA’S LIE
Rebecca arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight.
She came alone.
Her makeup was smudged.
Her champagne-colored dress was wrinkled.
The moment she saw me outside Sophie’s room, she rushed forward.
“Evelyn.”
I held up one hand.
She stopped.
“Don’t.”
Her face changed.
“What?”
“I saw you.”
She froze.
I stepped closer.
“You were outside the hotel when the ambulance left.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“You handed my mother a black velvet box.”
Rebecca’s eyes moved toward Sophie’s room.
“Keep your voice down.”
I almost laughed.
“My daughter is lying in a hospital bed because Preston attacked her, and you’re worried about my voice?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then tell me what you meant.”
Rebecca folded her arms.
For a few seconds, the cousin I had known my entire life disappeared.
In her place stood someone defensive.
Calculating.
Afraid.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“Not here.”
“Here is exactly where you’re explaining it.”
Her lips trembled.
“Your mother asked me to move something.”
“The bracelet?”
Rebecca said nothing.
That was enough.
“Why?”
“She told me it was a joke.”
I stared at her.
“A joke?”
“She said Preston wanted to scare you.”
“With my daughter?”
“I didn’t know he was going to hurt Sophie.”
“But you knew you were putting stolen jewelry in her jacket.”
Rebecca looked away.
“I was supposed to remove it later.”
“Before or after everyone accused her?”
Her silence made my anger sharper.
Then she whispered something unexpected.
“It wasn’t supposed to be Sophie.”
I stopped.
“What?”
Rebecca wiped beneath one eye.
“The jacket was supposed to be yours.”
I stared at her.
“She told me the denim jacket belonged to you.”
It didn’t.
Sophie had insisted on wearing it over her flower-girl dress because the ballroom air conditioning made her cold.
My mother knew that.
She had watched Sophie hang it on the chair herself.
Rebecca continued.
“When I realized it belonged to Sophie, I tried to take the bracelet back.”
“Then why did you give the box to my mother?”
“Because the bracelet wasn’t inside it anymore.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“What are you talking about?”
Rebecca leaned closer.
“I put the bracelet in the pocket.”
“Then Preston put his phone there.”
“Yes.”
“And later?”
“When everything happened, I checked the jacket while the paramedics were coming.”
Her voice dropped.
“The bracelet was gone.”
I stared at her.
“So who took it?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer frightened me more than anything else she had said.
Because now there were three possibilities.
Rebecca was lying.
Preston had taken it.
Or a third person had entered the plan.
Rebecca opened her purse.
She removed a folded document.
“Your mother gave me this before the ceremony.”
I took it.
At the top were the words:
WHITMORE FAMILY TRUST.
Below them was my name.
And beneath my name was a blank signature line.
May you like
Rebecca whispered.
“This is what tonight was really about.”
