Caroline’s face changed.
Sophie saw it.
Children always saw.
Caroline lowered herself until they were eye level, still holding the child’s arms.
“You can be angry.”
Her voice shook despite the effort to control it.
“You cannot hit, grab, or take things out of someone’s hands.”
Sophie sobbed.
“You stole it first.”
Caroline released her.
That sentence landed harder than the others.
Sophie immediately stepped backward.
Tears ran down both cheeks.
Caroline held the necklace in one palm.
The oval locket caught the sun.
Small.
Ordinary-looking.
Worth perhaps eight hundred dollars according to the jeweler who appraised Hannah Bennett’s personal pieces after her death.
Emotionally, apparently worth the entire house.
“Sophie.”
The little girl covered her ears.
“No!”
“I am going to put it in the kitchen drawer until Dad gets home.”
“No!”
“Then we will decide together what to do.”
“No!”
Sophie pointed at the necklace.
“Mom gave it to me!”
Caroline stopped.
“What?”
Sophie sobbed so hard she had trouble speaking.
“Mom gave it.”
Caroline stared.
“Your mother died when you were four.”
“I know!”
“You did not have this then.”
“Yes, I did.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
Caroline looked at the locket again.
Andrew had told her Margaret brought it over the previous weekend.
Hannah’s mother.
Sophie’s grandmother.
Margaret Ellis had arrived while Caroline and Andrew were attending a school fundraiser, stayed with Sophie for two hours, then left before they returned.
The next morning Sophie appeared at breakfast wearing the necklace.
When Andrew asked where it came from, Sophie said Grandma gave it to her.
Andrew had gone quiet.
Caroline noticed.
He eventually said:
“Okay.”
Nothing more.
Later, when Caroline asked privately, Andrew explained the locket had belonged to Hannah.
“She wore it all the time.”
“Was it meant for Sophie?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“Margaret says Hannah wanted her to have it.”
Caroline remembered asking:
“Did Hannah put that in the will?”
Andrew’s face hardened.
“Why does that matter?”
Caroline immediately regretted the wording.
“I’m asking because it’s valuable.”
“It isn't about money.”
“I know.”
“Then don't make it about money.”
Conversation over.
That had been six days earlier.
Now Caroline looked at Sophie.
“What do you mean your mom gave it to you?”
Sophie pressed both fists against her eyes.
“The box.”
“What box?”
“Grandma’s box.”
Caroline felt something cold move through her.
“What box?”
Sophie stopped answering.
The front door opened.
Both turned.
Andrew Bennett stepped inside carrying a laptop bag and his car keys.
He was forty-one, still wearing the dark blue button-down shirt and gray trousers he wore to his architecture firm. He usually arrived after six.
It was barely four-thirty.
He looked first at Caroline.
Then Sophie.
Then the necklace.
His expression changed immediately.
“What happened?”
Sophie ran.
“Daddy!”
Andrew dropped the laptop bag.
She hit him hard enough that he stepped backward.
He caught her.
“What happened?”
Sophie buried her face against his shirt.
Caroline remained in the living room.
The silver chain hung from her hand.
Andrew looked toward it.
Then at Caroline.
His face became still.
“Why do you have that?”
Caroline felt anger rise instantly.
Not because the question was unfair.
Because he had texted her two hours earlier.
Please get Mom’s necklace off Soph before she loses it. Clasp looked bad this morning. Put it somewhere safe until I can deal with it.
She had read Mom as Hannah.
He still called Hannah “Mom” when speaking about Sophie.
It had bothered Caroline once.
Now she barely noticed.
“You asked me to take it.”
Andrew frowned.
“What?”
She stared.
“You texted me.”
“I said put it somewhere safe.”
“Yes.”
“I meant ask her to take it off.”
Caroline laughed once in disbelief.
“What exactly do you think I did?”