Chapter 3

Saturday morning.

I held the ironed shirt out to Julian.

"It's my mom's memorial today. You said last week you'd come with me."

He looped his tie in the mirror.

"Did I?"

He didn't wait for an answer. Picked up his keys and walked out.

I went down alone.

A black Bentley was parked at the corner of the café near our building. Two SUVs idled behind it. Gustav stepped out of the first car and opened the rear door for me.

"Miss."

I got in.

The city slid past for a while before he spoke.

"Miss. I've been meaning to ask."

"Mm."

"Why are you still in that apartment? Why are you still paying a mortgage."

I looked out the window.

"Julian put down the deposit. We agreed before the wedding we'd split the monthly payment."

"And after?"

"I've been covering it."

Gustav didn't say anything for a minute.

"If your father knew..."

"Don't tell him."

He nodded. Then, a moment later, eyes on the road.

"Mr. Marchetti asked me to pass along a message. He's got two more weeks at sea. He said he'd pour one over the rail for your mother tonight, wherever he is."

I nodded once and went back to the window.

We drove up to my mother's memorial garden.

I sat on the bench next to her name.

I didn't say anything. I just sat there until the sun got higher than the cypresses.

Before Gustav drove me back down, he took a small teak box out of his coat pocket.

He held it out with both hands.

"Your father wanted me to give this to you. He said he'd like you to wear it on your birthday this year."

I opened the box.

A diamond pendant. Every time I saw it, I thought of my mother. She was beautiful.

Gustav didn't elaborate.

"It's your mother's, Miss. He said you'd understand."

I closed the box.

My fingers stayed on the lid for two seconds.

At home that evening I put the box in the safe and spun the dial.

Tuesday morning I saw the necklace again. It was on Sienna.

She walked into the office wearing it open-collared, the stone resting in the hollow of her throat.

Half the desk stood up.

"Sienna, is that the Monaco auction piece? I swear I saw the catalog shot."

She laughed and touched it like it annoyed her.

"Julian gave it to me. Wouldn't tell me what it cost. Probably nothing."

Julian was leaning in the doorway. His shoulders were back so far they looked like they hurt.

I didn't stand up.

I opened my laptop. Typed an email to Gustav.

Pull the hidden cam from the bedroom. This week.

At lunch I watched the clip on my phone under the desk.

Julian let himself in late. Went straight to the bedroom. Knelt in front of the safe. Punched in our wedding date. It opened. He took the teak box and left.

I saved the file to a folder that wasn't on any of the club servers.

Closed my laptop. Went back to work.

The group chat was still going.

"Julian, you've been holding out on us this whole time."

"You sandbag. The man has a yacht in his future and a wife on payroll."

"Since you've been lying to us all this time, you owe us a day. Bring it on, Julian."

He colored under the praise and posted an invite in the group chat.

Saturday. 3 p.m. Serein Cay, west beach. Volleyball, sunset package, thirty spots. 🍹🏐

The list of names started filling in under it. Mine wasn't on it.

I opened the internal booking system.

The west beach for Saturday afternoon had already been reserved three weeks ago by another member. Julian had gone in, pulled the reservation under his own name, and left the venue fee unpaid.

I didn't flag it.

I called the original member instead.

I hung up, and closed the laptop.

Let's see how he gets out of this one.