Chapter 2: After the Screen
The footage ended, but the room did not move right away.
I kept my eyes on the marble floor while security stepped in and guided Vanessa toward the side entrance. She did not look at me. Daniel watched her go without speaking. Margaret remained near the staircase, one hand still close to her mouth, as if the necklace on the velvet lining might somehow reattach itself to the old accusation.
Someone closed my bag and set it upright. The necklace was removed with care and returned to Margaret. No one handed the bag back to me immediately. It sat there like a piece of evidence that had not yet been released.
Daniel finally turned.
“Emily. Come with me.”
I followed him into the small study off the foyer. He closed the door. The quiet inside was thicker than the silence outside.
“You all right?” he asked.
“My face hurts,” I said. “And everyone in that room thought I stole from you.”
He nodded once, accepting both facts without trying to soften them.
“Vanessa will not be back in this house. I’ll make sure the staff and the guests who were present understand what the camera showed. If you want the evening off, take it. If you want to keep working, the job is still yours.”
I stared at the edge of his desk.
“I need the job.”
“Then it’s there.”
He paused.
“I’m sorry she put her hands on you. That won’t be ignored.”
May you like
I left the study with my bag finally returned to me and walked out through the service corridor so I would not have to cross the foyer again. My cheek still throbbed. In the bus shelter two blocks away I sat with the bag on my knees and waited for the shaking in my hands to stop.
Being cleared on a screen and being unharmed were not the same thing.
