Chapter 2

Someone downstairs laughed. "The bride's got a temper. Once she marries in, she'll learn." I crouched in the stairwell, picked up a strip of fabric by my foot, and turned it over. Silver patterning. French lettering. Christine, you still don't know, do you?

"Anna, what are you doing crouching in the stairwell in the middle of the night? You'll scare someone." My mother-in-law walked past with hot milk for Lydia without even looking at me.

I stood up. "Mom, I want to check my dowry."

"It's locked in West Wing Storage. You can look tomorrow morning."

"Just one look."

She looked me over for a few seconds, decided I wasn't about to make another scene, then pulled out a key and tossed it to me. "Go look, then get some sleep. The makeup artist will be here at four-thirty tomorrow morning."

Inside West Wing Storage, three rosewood chests sat stacked in the corner. The first still held silk bedding, the second a porcelain tea set. But the third wasn't locked anymore. The brass clasp hung open, and faint pry marks ringed the edge.

When I lifted the lid, the jade bangle should have been under the top layer of silk. My grandmother had passed it to my mother, and my mother to me. A hairline crack marked the three o'clock position, the old family sign that proved it was ours. I tore through every layer and compartment, but it was gone.

My heartbeat jammed in my throat as I returned to the living room clutching the silk cloth. Lydia was curled on the couch drinking milk, and a jade bangle gleamed on her wrist, deep green and crystal clear, with a crack at the three o'clock position.

"That's my bangle."

Lydia jerked her hand behind a cushion. "What are you even talking about? Christine gave me this for my birthday."

"There's a crack at the three o'clock position. Hold your hand out."

"Are you crazy? Christine! Christine, hurry up and come down!"

Christine came downstairs with a face mask still on, looking as if she had just been about to go to bed. "What's wrong?"

"She keeps saying the bangle on my wrist is hers and wants me to take it off!"

Christine glanced at Lydia's wrist, then at me, and her brows drew together in a measured look of concern. "Anna, I bought that bangle for Lydia's birthday last week at Emerald Grace Jewelers. Thirteen grand, and I have the receipt. Stop claiming everything as yours."

My mother-in-law appeared behind Christine as if on cue. "Right, I went with her. I saw her swipe the card myself. Anna, when did your dowry ever include some jade bangle? How come I never knew about it?"

"I wrote it down on the dowry list."

"A list? What list? I've never seen any list."

Her eyes didn't even blink. Chin slightly raised, she even wore a faintly wronged expression. Behind Christine, Lydia muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear, "Is she seriously paranoid? First the dress, now the bangle. Does everything in the world belong to her?"

Aunt May clicked her tongue as she cleared bowls from the table. "I'll be honest. James is going to have a hard life if this is the kind of wife he picked."

Christine came over and took my hand, her thumb pressing lightly against my wrist bone. "Anna, pre-wedding stress is a lot. I get it. Why don't you go rest? You're the star tomorrow. You need to look beautiful."

I stared at the jade bangle on Lydia's wrist. Even with my eyes closed, I could have traced that crack from memory, but I had no proof. The paper dowry list was gone, the appraisal sat in my apartment safe, and it was already ten at night.

"I want to see the surveillance footage." The entire living room went quiet.

"What did you say?" My mother-in-law's face went from shock to anger in three seconds flat.

"There are cameras in the walk-in closet. I want to see the footage."

"You think you can just watch this family's security feeds whenever you want?" She swept a porcelain cup off the coffee table, and one shard sliced my ankle. "You haven't even married into this family yet, and you're already trying to turn the house upside down?"

Christine stepped between us, her voice as smooth and steady as ever. "Mom, please don't get worked up. Anna's just too nervous. Anna, it's late. Don't make things worse. Think about James..."

"I want to see the surveillance footage."

Lydia jumped up, circled behind me, and shoved me hard. My back slammed into the storage room door, which wasn't fully shut, and I stumbled inside. My phone flew out onto the tile. The door slammed. The lock clicked. Darkness.

I pounded on the door. "Open up." No one answered. "Open the door!"

Christine's voice came through the wood, soft and gentle. "Anna, calm down. I'm doing this for your own good. If you keep making a scene, what will James think? What will the relatives say? You're putting everyone in a bad spot."

I kept hitting the door until my knuckles went numb. "Tell Lydia to give my bangle back."

It went quiet outside for a few seconds. Then my mother-in-law's voice came from farther away. "Leave her alone. Let her calm down. After pulling something like this, how are we supposed to clean up tomorrow?"