The Necklace Behind the Glass
Chapter 04 - The Necklace Behind the Glass
Richard could not answer.
Not in front of his employees.
Not in front of Ethan.
And certainly not in front of the granddaughter he had never known existed.
He turned toward Vanessa.
"Close the store."
"Mr. Hale?"
"Now."
Within minutes, the front doors were locked.
Richard led Ethan and Lily into the private collection room.
At its center was a velvet display case.
Inside rested the Eleanor.
A sapphire surrounded by twenty-four diamonds.
Lily stepped closer.
"It's pretty."
Richard looked at Ethan.
"Why did Emma send you here?"
Ethan reached beneath his shirt and removed a small brass key hanging from a cord.
"She gave me this."
Richard recognized it instantly.
His knees nearly buckled.
The key opened the original display case created for the Eleanor necklace.
Only two keys existed.
Richard had one.
Emma had taken the other the night she left home.
Ethan placed it on the table.
"She said the necklace wasn't what mattered."
Richard looked confused.
"Then why bring you here?"
"Because there's something underneath it."
Richard unlocked the case.
They removed the velvet tray.
Beneath it was a narrow compartment Richard had completely forgotten existed.
Inside was a folded letter.
The paper was yellow with age.
Across the front, in twenty-three-year-old handwriting, were four words.
For Dad, when ready.
Richard stared at it.
Emma had written the letter before she disappeared from his life.
His hands shook as he opened it.
He read the first line.
Then his face collapsed.
"Dad, I didn't leave because I stopped loving you."
Richard sank into a chair.
Ethan watched silently.
There were some griefs no enemy could inflict.
They came only from realizing you had wasted years you could never get back.
But halfway through Emma's letter, Richard stopped.
His expression changed.
He looked sharply at Ethan.
"This doesn't make sense."
"What?"
Richard turned the letter around.
The final paragraph had been torn away.
May you like
And across the bottom of the remaining page, Emma had written:
If anything happens to me, Ethan must never know what Uncle Charles did.
