Plot

Chapter 3 - The Stolen Life

Vanessa attempted to slip past the officers toward the garage exit, her high heels clicking frantically against the hardwood floor.

"Ma'am, you do not move an inch," the third officer barked, stepping directly into her path with his broad shoulders blocking the hallway.

"I didn't do anything!" Vanessa cried, tears instantly ruining her heavy foundation. "I'm just a guest! I didn't touch her!"

"Officer," I spoke up, pointing a steady, unyielding finger at her trembling frame. "That coat she is wearing belonged to my late mother, Margaret Vance. It has my mother's monogram embroidered on the inner satin lining."

The female sergeant stepped over to Vanessa, gently pulling open the right lapel of the cream cashmere coat.

Stitched into the emerald silk lining were three golden letters: M.E.V.

"And the diamond tennis bracelet on her left wrist is an insured heirloom registered in my family trust," I continued, my voice steady and unwavering. "She used my husband's key to enter my home without my consent and raided my walk-in closet."

The sergeant looked at Vanessa with absolute disgust.

"Take off the jewelry and the coat, ma'am. Slowly."

Vanessa sobbed loudly, fumbling with the safety clasp of the diamond bracelet until it fell onto the polished floor with a dull chime. She slipped out of the cashmere coat, shivering in the drafty hallway in her flimsy cocktail dress from the night before.

"Grant, do something!" she wailed, looking toward my husband as the officer took her purse and began inventorying the contents.

Grant didn't look at her.

He was pressed against our living room wall, his cheek mashed against the expensive custom wallpaper as the cold steel handcuffs clicked tightly around his wrists.

"Emma, you are making the biggest mistake of your miserable life!" Grant snarled through clenched teeth, his patrician facade completely shattered. "My attorneys will have me out of central booking in forty-five minutes! You won't see a single dime of my fortune!"

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"It isn't your fortune, Grant," I whispered as two paramedics walked through the door carrying an emergency medical trauma kit.

"And it never was."

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