Chapter 10 - The Velvet Pouch
Ethan watched the footage in silence.
“I went there to leave my mother’s speech cards.”
Leah looked at the pouch in his hand.
“Speech cards don’t come in velvet.”
Mrs. Harrington’s fingers tightened around the armrest.
“Ethan.”
He closed his eyes.
Inside the pouch had been the missing diamond charm.
He admitted finding it years earlier in his father’s desk.
Victoria had already begun pressuring the family to sell the apartments.
Ethan kept the charm because he believed it proved she had misused housing money.
“Then why bring it today?” Leah asked.
“I planned to confront her after the signing.”
“After your mother signed away the properties?”
“No.”
He looked at Mrs. Harrington.
“I planned to stop the sale.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“By making me look like I tried to harm her?”
Ethan said nothing.
The silence frightened everyone.
Mrs. Harrington’s voice broke.
“Did you place the diamond in my brake?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Ethan opened his phone.
A message had arrived that morning from an unknown number.
It instructed him to bring the charm to the wheelchair room and leave it inside the velvet pouch.
The sender promised evidence proving Victoria had stolen from the trust.
Ethan obeyed.
He never saw who collected it.
Leah looked at him.
“You followed instructions from a stranger because you wanted an easy villain.”
He lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
The restored footage continued.
Ten minutes after Ethan left, someone entered wearing a mansion server’s uniform.
The face remained hidden beneath a catering cap.
The person removed the charm from the pouch and approached the wheelchair.
Victoria pointed toward Leah.
“There. Your server.”
Leah stared at the screen.
The uniform matched hers.
But the person moved differently.
Older.
Slower.
Mrs. Harrington suddenly gripped Leah’s wrist.
“I know that walk.”
The disguised figure turned slightly.
A silver Harrington family watch appeared beneath the cuff.
Mrs. Harrington stopped breathing.
“That belonged to Charles.”
Her husband had been declared dead eight years earlier.
The figure removed the cap.
Silver hair.
Familiar face.
Charles Harrington looked directly into the hallway camera before placing the diamond into the brake.
Alive.
Then the ballroom doors opened.
An elderly man entered carrying the original housing-trust ledger.
Ethan whispered:
“Dad?”
Charles looked at Victoria.
Then at Leah.
Finally at Mrs. Harrington.
“I never meant for the chair to reach the stairs.”
Leah stepped in front of the wheelchair.
Mrs. Harrington stared at the husband she had mourned.
“Then what did you mean to happen?”
Charles placed the ledger on the marble.
“I needed everyone to believe Victoria tried to remove you.”
A pause.
May you like
“Because she is the only person in this room who knows the apartments do not belong to the Harrington family.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
