Roses Revenge novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Brooch

Rose takes back her grandmother's brooch from Paisley in front of the doorman and photographs the company lease for Paisley's car, and payroll fails the next morning.

I slept that night in my aunt Bea's spare room, with the box from my desk on the floor beside the bed.

I had not told her much on the phone. She had come to get me from the condo stairs in her cardigan, with her reading glasses still on their cord.

She did not ask me one question until morning.

At breakfast she put a plate of eggs in front of me and said, "Tell me everything. Start with the part where he locked you out."

I told her.

She set down her fork.

"Right," she said. "We are going to get your things. Today. And we are taking a witness."

"Who?"

"Me."

At nine, we stood in the lobby of Colton's building. It was his building. I had only ever lived in it.

The doorman looked at my face and then looked at my aunt.

"Ms. Haverty," he said. "Mr. Brewer left a note that you weren't to go up."

"Is my name on the lease?" I asked.

"It is, ma'am."

"Then call up and tell whoever is there that the leaseholder is coming for her belongings."

He picked up the phone. Aunt Bea took out her own phone and held it up, recording.

"Doorman, state your name for the record," she said.

He did, very quickly, and then he sent us up.

Paisley opened the door.

She was wearing my bathrobe, the gray one with my initials on the pocket.

Pinned to the collar was my grandmother's pearl brooch.

I had left it in the dish on the dresser two days earlier, because the clasp needed fixing.

"Rose!" Paisley said. "Oh, thank goodness. I was so worried about you."

She stepped back to let us in, still smiling, still wide-eyed.

"Colton had to go in early. He wanted me to stay and make sure you were okay."

Aunt Bea walked past her without a word and started going through the kitchen drawers.

I looked at the brooch.

"That belonged to my grandmother," I said.

Paisley put her hand over it.

"Oh. Colton said it was a gift. From the company. For all my hard work."

"The company didn't buy it. My grandmother left it to me."

"I didn't know," she said. Her lip trembled. "I'd never take something that wasn't mine."

"Then take it off."

She hesitated for one second.

I held out my hand.

She unpinned the brooch and placed it on my palm. Her fingers were cold.

"I'm sorry, Rose. Truly."

"Thank you for looking after my robe, too," I said. "I'll take that now."

Her smile slipped.

Aunt Bea cleared her throat. "The robe, dear."

Paisley went into the bedroom and came back wearing a pair of Colton's sweatpants and a T-shirt, with the robe folded over her arm.

My aunt took it from her with two fingers and dropped it into the box.

I went through the condo, room by room.

My laptop. My passport. My grandmother's photographs. The good knives.

On the kitchen counter, under a fruit bowl, I found a folded stack of papers.

It was a lease agreement for a white Porsche Taycan.

The lessee was Brewer Labs, Inc. The monthly payment was printed in bold. The driver listed was Paisley Dunn.

At the bottom, in Colton's handwriting, a sticky note said: "Charge to ops budget, categorize as client vehicle."

I took out my phone and photographed every page.

"What are you doing?" Paisley said.

"Reading," I said. "I'm head of operations. Or I was until last night."

She opened her mouth and closed it.

The front door opened behind her.

Colton came in with a coffee in each hand. He stopped when he saw Aunt Bea, the open drawers, and the phone in my hand.

"Rose." He set the coffees down very slowly. "What is this?"

"This is me collecting my things."

"You made a scene. In front of forty people. In my company."

"You cut my pay in half and gave your assistant a car in front of forty people," I said. "I only quit."

His jaw tightened.

"You are embarrassing yourself."

"Then you should be glad I'm leaving."

He looked at Paisley, who was standing in his sweatpants in my kitchen.

"Paisley, go change."

"I just did," she said in a small voice.

Aunt Bea picked up the box. "Come on, Rosie. We're done here."

At the door, Colton caught my wrist.

I looked at his hand until he let go.

"The ring stays on," he said. "People will ask."

I twisted the sapphire off my finger and set it on top of the fruit bowl, on the lease.

"Let them."

We rode the elevator down together without speaking.

On Thursday morning I woke at seven to the sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand.

Colton had called me thirty-one times.

There was a message from the woman in payroll, who had never once texted me in three years.

It said: "Rose, payroll did not go out. Everyone's account is empty. Colton is screaming. What did you do?"

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