Chapter 3
The transport box contained three loose sapphires scheduled for laboratory certification.
All three were present.
Claire photographed the broken seal before touching anything.
“Could Sophie have done this?” Isabella asked.
Claire gave her a flat look.
“She’s three.”
It was the same phrase Preston had used.
For a completely different reason.
The box sat on a waist-high preparation counter behind an employees-only rope.
The seal required a small blade.
Sophie could not have reached it easily.
Rachel arrived and reviewed the situation.
“One replica in Sophie’s pocket. One opened transport box. Nothing missing.”
Isabella nodded.
Rachel looked at Claire.
“Could someone have opened the box accidentally?”
“No.”
“Could the seal have failed?”
“No.”
“Then we document it and let the audit tell us whether it matters.”
That afternoon, Isabella suspended Preston’s operational access to Caradonna Fine Assets, the family company that managed the collection.
The cost appeared within hours.
Preston oversaw transport contractors, restoration vendors, insurance paperwork, and several private collectors.
A shipment to Boston had to be postponed.
Two clients complained.
One threatened to pull a consignment.
Diane called Isabella directly.
“You’re punishing him before you know anything.”
“I’m protecting inventory.”
“You’re protecting your pride.”
Isabella almost answered.
Then stopped.
The old family habit was to turn every business problem into a loyalty test.
She ended the call.
Claire spent the evening comparing the replica’s workshop mark against restoration records.
At 8:40 p.m., she called Isabella.
“I found the shop.”
“Who ordered it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
The workshop invoice had been issued through an intermediary vendor.
But the date mattered.
The replica had been commissioned eleven months earlier.
Long before the current exhibition.
Long before Sophie could plausibly be useful in any plan surrounding tonight.
Isabella sat back.
“So this wasn’t made to frame her.”
“Not originally.”
The question shifted.
May you like
Someone had already needed a convincing copy of that brooch nearly a year ago.
Tonight, they had simply found a new use for it.
