Chapter 6 — A Jaw-Dropping Realization
Beatrice held out her trembling hands.
The skin across her knuckles was pale and tight.
Her fingers quivered visibly as she extended her palms toward her son.
Robert stepped forward across the bedroom rug.
He leaned down slightly toward his mother.
Robert placed the pearls back into his mother’s open palm.
The physical weight of the pearls rested back in Beatrice’s hand.
The cool beads settled against her skin with a familiar, heavy drag.
The sensation destroyed every part of her theft theory in a single instant.
The jewelry had not been locked inside a hidden pocket.
It had not been stashed away in a backpack or a coat lining.
It had simply been resting a mere foot away from the empty velvet box all along.
Beatrice stared down at the smooth beads resting against her lifeline.
Her jaw remained slack as she tried to process the physical reality of the object she had just claimed was stolen.
Robert stood upright and exhaled a long, shaky breath.
A heavy silence filled the bedroom.
Both adults stood frozen as they processed the absolute impossibility of how the necklace got there.
Beatrice shifted her gaze slowly from the pearls in her hand to the narrow gap behind the heavy carved mirror frame.