Chapter 3
Diana called the token fake.
Of course she did.
I placed it on the ballroom table.
She stared at it for half a second too long before rolling her eyes.
“Marcus was dramatic.”
Mark stood beside her with his capo pin still on.
“He probably stole it.”
I looked at him.
“Marcus saved my life.”
“And?”
The word came easily.
Too easily.
Grace flinched.
I saw that too.
Mark noticed after.
Late.
I picked up the token.
These markers had not been used in years. My father issued them to people who had done something for the family that could not be repaid with cash.
Marcus had one.
I gave it to him myself.
The day he died, it was missing from his belongings.
I assumed someone took it during the chaos.
Apparently Marcus had hidden it first.
“Why put it inside the bear?” I asked.
Grace looked at the toy.
“My father gave Bear to me when I was eight.”
I turned.
“Eight?”
She nodded.
“He replaced the button eye twice. The blue patch came later.”
“How much later?”
“The week before he died.”
That changed things.
Marcus had not hidden the token years earlier.
He hid it just before he saved my life.
Why?
Grace looked down.
“He told me if anything ever happened to him, I should keep Bear close and never let anyone cut the star.”
“Did anyone try?”
Her eyes moved toward Diana again.
Diana laughed.
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
Grace did not look away from her.
“She did.”
The room went silent.
“When?”
“Three months after I started working here.”
Diana stood.
“She brought a filthy toy into my house. I told her to throw it away.”
“No.”
Grace’s voice shook.
“You took scissors to the patch.”
Diana’s face hardened.
“And you slapped my hand.”
“I was protecting my father’s last gift.”
“You were a maid forgetting her place.”
There.
Same phrase.
Same system.
Not one cruel moment at Christmas.
A pattern.
I looked at Mark.
“Did you know about the bear?”
He said nothing.
Diana answered.
“No.”
Again.
Wrong person.
I stepped closer to my cousin.
“Did you?”
Mark looked at the token.
Then at me.
“I knew my mother thought Marcus left something behind.”
Grace went pale.
I heard my own voice lower.
“What?”
Mark realized too late.
Diana closed her eyes.
I smiled without warmth.
There it was.
The blue star was not frightening because it proved Grace belonged to Marcus.
May you like
They already knew that.
It frightened them because they had spent years looking for whatever Marcus hid before he died.
