The Price of Interfering
Chapter 02 - The Price of Interfering
Leah had expected to be fired. She had not expected the entire ballroom to turn into a courtroom.
Victoria pressed one hand to her wrist, though Leah had left no mark. "She grabbed me without warning. I was only helping Evelyn adjust her shawl."
"That is not what I saw," Leah said.
Her manager, Mr. Pritchard, stepped between them. "Miss Carter, apologize immediately."
Leah looked at Evelyn. The older woman's fingers remained locked around her sleeve. Beneath the expensive shawl, dark bruises circled one thin wrist.
"I will apologize for dropping the glasses," Leah said. "Not for stopping a slap."
Pritchard's mouth tightened. "You are terminated. Security will escort you out."
Two guards approached. Victoria's small smile returned.
Harrison lifted a hand. "No one leaves yet."
The room went silent again.
He moved closer to his sister. "Evelyn, did Victoria try to strike you?"
Evelyn opened her mouth, but Victoria answered first. "She is confused. Her doctors warned us that stress makes her imagine things."
Harrison's expression flickered with pain. It was the look of a man who had heard that explanation many times and wanted desperately to believe it.
"Ask her yourself," Leah said.
Victoria turned on her. "You do not know this family."
"No," Leah replied, "but I know fear when someone is holding onto me like a lifeline."
A murmur spread through the guests. Harrison knelt beside Evelyn. For several seconds, brother and sister simply looked at each other.
"I want to stay here," Evelyn said at last. Her voice was weak, but clear. "And I do not want Victoria near me."
Victoria's face drained of color.
Before Harrison could respond, a young security officer hurried through the crowd. "Mr. Whitmore, there is another problem."
He held up an empty velvet jewelry case.
Victoria touched her neck and screamed. The diamond necklace she had worn moments earlier was gone.
Pritchard stared at Leah's apron pockets. "Search her."
Leah stepped back. "I did not take anything."
Victoria's eyes gleamed with sudden certainty. "Of course she did. She caused a scene so she could steal it."
The guards searched Leah and found nothing. Then one of them checked Evelyn's wheelchair.
From beneath the folded shawl, he pulled the missing necklace.
Every face turned toward the woman in the chair.
May you like
Evelyn whispered, "I have never seen that before."
Leah looked at Victoria and understood. The raised hand had not been the whole attack. It had only been the part everyone was meant to see.
