Chapter 6 - Forty Seconds of Darkness.
The ballroom disappeared into blackness.
Someone screamed.
Glass shattered.
Emma heard chairs scrape and security guards shout for everyone to remain still.
She moved toward the private table by memory.
A hand caught her arm.
She twisted free.
Another hand closed around her waist and pulled her backward.
“Emma, stop.”
Adrian's voice was close to her ear.
“Someone is at the table.”
“I know.”
The emergency lights flickered on forty seconds later.
The silver dome was gone.
Eleanor was still standing, but Vanessa had moved several feet away from her.
Marcus was near the ballroom doors.
Adrian released Emma and pushed through the crowd.
“Lock the exits.”
Marcus objected immediately.
“You cannot detain two hundred guests.”
“Watch me.”
Security sealed the ballroom.
A search began.
No dome appeared.
Emma knelt beside Eleanor.
“Are you hurt?”
Eleanor signed.
No.
Did you see who took it?
Eleanor shook her head.
Then she touched Emma's wrist and spelled three letters.
M.
H.
No.
Emma frowned.
Not Marcus Hale?
Eleanor shook her head again and signed more carefully.
My husband.
Emma suddenly understood.
The engraving on the dome included the initials M.H.
The object had belonged to Eleanor's late husband, Malcolm Whitmore.
It was not restaurant property at all.
Aurelia had been using it because Eleanor had loaned a collection of antique serving pieces to the restaurant years earlier.
Emma signed.
What is inside it?
Eleanor looked toward Adrian.
Not paper.
Proof.
Adrian joined them.
“Tell me everything she says.”
Emma hesitated.
Eleanor watched her grandson for a long moment.
Then she signed.
Tell him.
Emma translated.
“The dome contains proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Eleanor's hands moved.
That I was never incompetent.
That someone paid a doctor to say I was.
Adrian's face emptied.
“What doctor?”
Eleanor spelled a name.
Dr. Philip Kessler.
Adrian took a step back.
“He's been our family neurologist for ten years.”
Eleanor signed with bitter humor.
Then he has been overpaid for ten years.
Despite herself, Emma almost smiled.
Adrian did not.
He turned toward Marcus.
Marcus was speaking urgently to Vanessa.
Adrian walked straight toward them.
“Where is the dome?”
Marcus looked offended.
“You think I stole a serving dish during a blackout?”
“I think my grandmother says there is evidence inside it.”
Vanessa's face changed before Marcus could control his.
It lasted less than a second.
Adrian saw it.
“So you knew.”
Vanessa recovered.
“Eleanor has been making bizarre accusations for months.”
Eleanor crossed the room and slapped Vanessa.
The sound cracked through the ballroom.
Every guest went silent.
Eleanor signed furiously.
Emma translated.
“She says the only bizarre thing she has done is trust her own daughter.”
Vanessa's face turned white.
Then a security guard called Adrian from the hallway.
They had found the silver dome.
It was lying beside a service elevator.
The hidden compartment had been forced open.
During the search, Emma caught Adrian watching his grandmother's hands instead of watching the exits.
He tried to copy one of Eleanor's signs and got it wrong.
Eleanor corrected him with an irritated flick of her fingers.
Adrian tried again.
This time she nodded.
It was the first evidence Emma had seen that he might actually be capable of changing.
It also made Marcus's sudden disappearance feel more urgent, because the family dynamic was shifting in a way someone clearly did not want.
May you like
Whatever had been inside was gone.
The Last Translation
