Chapter 6 - The Broken Covenant
The next morning, the storm broke.
My mother called my phone thirty times in the span of two hours. When I didn't answer, she began sending text messages—frantic, misspelled paragraphs that read like the diary of a drowning woman.
“Hannah please. What did you tell him? He’s packing his bags. He’s asking for the safe deposit box records. He’s going to find out. Please, Hannah, I’m your mother. I carried you. You can’t do this to me.” “I’ll get the ring back. I swear to you. I’ll buy it back from the police. Just tell him you were lying. Tell him you were high on the pain meds.” “You’ve ruined everything. You’ve killed this family.”
I didn't reply. I sent the screenshots of the texts directly to Arthur Vance and Detective Miller, who were currently building the case for the grand larceny charge against Vanessa.
At 2:00 PM, my father’s attorney called Arthur’s office.
“Richard has filed for divorce,” Arthur told me over the phone. “And he’s requested a court-ordered DNA paternity test for Vanessa.”
I sat back on my sofa, the sun streaming through my small apartment window, feeling a strange, hollow sensation in my chest. “He didn't even wait to ask her.”
“He didn't have to,” Arthur said. “He confronted Eleanor last night. Apparently, she broke down within five minutes. She admitted everything, but she tried to blame June. She said June had forced her to keep the secret to protect the family’s social standing. Richard... well, Richard has always been a man of pride. He spent thirty years raising another man's child while believing he was the patriarch of a perfect dynasty. He’s completely undone.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She’s in custody,” Arthur said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. “The district attorney refused to offer bail without a high cash deposit. Since Richard has frozen all the family accounts, Eleanor couldn't raise the money. Vanessa spent the night in the county holding facility.”
“My God,” I whispered.
“It gets worse, Hannah,” Arthur said. “The Croft family—Vanessa’s fiancé’s parents—have officially called off the wedding. They issued a press release to the local paper this morning, stating that due to 'unforeseen personal developments,' the union between Vanessa Mercer and Julian Croft has been dissolved.”
I closed my eyes. The white dress, the Cabo resort, the twelve-thousand-dollar honeymoon—it had all vanished in the span of forty-eight hours, pulled under by the weight of a single, stolen gold ring.
“What about the ring itself?” I asked.
“The police have it in evidence,” Arthur said. “But since the jeweler, Mr. Ross, has agreed to testify against Vanessa in exchange for a reduced charge of receiving stolen property, the DA has agreed to release the physical ring to you as soon as the formal indictment is handed down next Tuesday.”
May you like
“I want it back, Arthur,” I said. “Not because of the money. But because Grandma told me to keep what she left me.”
“You’ll get it back, Hannah,” Arthur said. “But be careful. A cornered animal is always the most dangerous, and right now, your mother and sister have absolutely nothing left to lose.”
