Chapter 3 - The Red Seal.
Savannah entered the conference room twenty minutes later with her makeup washed away and a hotel robe covering her evening gown.
Without the polished confidence from the gala, she looked younger and far more frightened.
Vivian asked the question before Savannah could sit down.
"Who gave you the bracelet?"
Savannah looked toward Daniel.
"Grant did."
"When?"
"This afternoon."
Daniel heard the hesitation too.
He asked for details.
Savannah said Grant arrived at her apartment with flowers, a jewelry box, and a speech about their future.
He fastened the bracelet around her wrist himself.
"Did he tell you where it came from?"
Vivian asked.
"He said it belonged to his family."
Vivian almost laughed.
"My mother wore it at our wedding."
Savannah's face drained of color.
"I didn't know."
Vivian wanted to hate her without complication, but that was becoming impossible.
Daniel placed the photograph from Grant's chair on the table.
Savannah denied seeing it before, then froze when she noticed the writing.
"You recognize that lettering," Vivian said.
Savannah nodded reluctantly.
The block letters resembled notes written by Miles Arden, Grant's executive assistant.
Miles had worked for Grant for five years and had the useful talent of becoming invisible in every room.
Vivian remembered seeing him near the gala registration table and later beside the projection booth.
She never saw him after the Marshals arrived.
Daniel asked hotel security for corridor footage.
Several cameras had failed for exactly seventeen minutes.
The outage began three minutes before Daniel entered the ballroom.
"That wasn't random," Vivian said.
Savannah pressed both hands together.
"Grant told me someone was trying to ruin him."
Vivian gave her a hard look.
"He told me the same thing whenever I asked about money."
Savannah swallowed.
"He said you were unstable after your father died."
The words hurt because Vivian suddenly understood the pattern.
Grant had not simply lied to both women.
He had created two separate realities and made each woman the threat inside the other's story.
Daniel's phone rang.
Grant had obtained counsel and announced that he would cooperate.
Then came the accusation.
Grant claimed Vivian ordered the suspicious transfers.
He also claimed Savannah had entered Vivian's house and stolen the bracelet.
Savannah stood abruptly.
"I've never been inside her house."
Daniel showed them a security access log.
Savannah's name appeared beside a temporary visitor code on the day the bracelet vanished.
The original home-security system contained the same entry.
Vivian remembered who had insisted on installing that system.
Grant had managed the project himself.
Only three administrator accounts could create temporary visitor codes.
Vivian's account was one.
Grant's was another.
The third belonged to Miles.
Before Daniel could respond, a hotel technician entered carrying a tablet.
Technicians had recovered twelve seconds from one of the damaged camera feeds.
The clip showed Miles entering the dark corridor carrying something under his jacket.
The object slipped into view for less than a second.
It was a black legal folder with a red court seal.
Daniel replayed the footage.
His face tightened.
"That seal should exist only on the folder in my possession."
Vivian stared at the paused image.
Somewhere inside the gala, a second legal folder had appeared.
May you like
Miles had carried it into the blackout.
Then he had vanished.
