Chapter 6: The Necklace

Christian got out of the car first.

He didn't look guilty, and that scared me more than if he had.

"Giselle," he said. "Where's Poppy?"

"Asleep upstairs. Your mother's with her." Giselle's gaze slid over me, wet and flushed and without my glasses. "Ellie, you look cold."

"I slipped coming in," I said. "The floor's wet."

"How unlucky."

She stepped aside, smiling, and let us both walk past her.

It was the smile of someone who had decided to save it for later.

"Dinner is at seven," she said to my back. "Eight guests, the board chairman and his wife. Ellie, you'll help the staff. Wear black."

She was giving me a stage.

I went up the back stairs and washed my face and looked at myself in the little mirror.

My lips were swollen.

I pressed my hands to them and told myself it didn't matter.

It mattered more than anything had in four years.

Around five I went looking for Christian in the study.

He was alone with his laptop, and he shut it when I knocked.

"I should apologize," he started.

"Please don't," I said. "Not yet. I need to ask you something."

"Anything."

"The camera in the upstairs hall. Does it record?"

He blinked.

"I put it in after the accident. I wanted to know who came and went. Why?"

"Because tonight there'll be a lot of people in the house, and I'm the new girl with no history."

"Ellie."

"If anything goes missing," I said, "I want it on the record. Can you make sure it's running?"

He studied my face for a long moment.

"Someone's going to try something," he said slowly.

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

I didn't answer.

He picked up his phone and tapped for ten seconds.

"It's on. The feed goes to my phone. Nobody else has the login."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He hesitated. "For what it's worth, I'm not going to pretend that car didn't happen."

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