Chapter 4: Rule Three

I put the goggles on before I opened the door.

The red light was already blinking when two capos filled the hallway, with my father and mother behind them.

Fiora stood at the back in a white robe with her foot wrapped in a bandage and her eyes puffy.

"Search it," Dad said.

"Dad, I never left this room."

"The safe was open at five. Your mother's emerald is gone. Search it."

The capos went through my room like I wasn't there.

They shook out my vest and opened my suitcase and dumped the cans of beans onto the rug.

One of them lifted the mattress and found nothing.

Fiora limped forward with her hands out.

"Nerina, I'm so scared for you," she said, and she threw her arms around my neck.

I felt her cheek wet against mine.

I felt her fingers slide into the back pocket of my jeans, quick as a pickpocket.

She let go and stepped back, wiping her eyes.

"Nerina," she said, very softly. "What's hanging out of your pocket?"

A thin gold chain trailed from my back pocket.

I pulled it out.

A green stone as big as a quail egg swung from the end of it.

Nobody had to tell me whose it was.

It had come to my mother from her own mother, and it was worth more than the shelter and the street it stood on.

Mom let out a little sob and sagged against my father's arm.

"Emilio, she stole from me, my own daughter."

"I didn't take your emerald," I said.

"It was in your pocket!" Dad's voice shook the glass in the windows. "On your second day! In my own house!"

"Then ask yourself who has the key to my room."

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