Chapter 5: Pearls

I knew exactly where Danielle would wear them first.

The Ambler Trust's spring luncheon was on Thursday, in the Drake's Gold Coast Room.

My seat had been booked since January, at table two, next to the Amblers.

Nobody had thought to cancel it.

"You're going back in there," Bruna said, standing in my bedroom door with her arms folded. "Into the bank's house. Three days after the tie."

"It's a hotel."

"It's their hotel on Thursday."

"Then I'll be their guest."

She looked at the dress I'd laid out, black and plain with a high neck.

"You look like you're going to a funeral."

"I'm going to get my mother's pearls back."

Bruna's face changed.

"Want company?"

"I want a witness," I said. "There'll be three hundred."

The Gold Coast Room glittered with crystal and white roses.

Every head turned when I walked in, the hush and then the hiss.

Mrs. Ambler stood near the podium in lilac, holding her program like a shield.

"Odessa," she said. "We didn't expect you."

"I paid for my seat in January."

"Of course." Her smile could have cut glass. "And how is married life?"

"Quiet," I said. "My husband's very polite."

Rhett was at table two already.

Danielle sat beside him in pale pink, with a single strand of pearls lying on her collarbone.

Old pearls, slightly creamy, each one hand-knotted, with a gold clasp at the back.

I had fastened that clasp for my mother when I was eight.

Her fingers had been shaking too much from the chemo to do it herself.

Danielle saw me and put her hand to her throat.

Then she smiled.

I walked to table two and didn't sit down.

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