Chapter 2 - THE BRACELET
At 10:06, Sabina walked into Rosamund’s staff room.
Chadworth nearly missed it.
The corridor camera showed her entering with something in her hand.
Marcus immediately rewound the footage.
“Zoom.”
The image enlarged.
A small velvet case.
Chadworth knew it.
Sabina’s missing bracelet.
His stomach dropped.
“No.”
Marcus said nothing.
They watched.
Sabina remained inside for forty-three seconds.
Then emerged without the box.
She checked both directions.
Walked away.
Chadworth stared at the screen.
The accusation.
The doubts.
The entire reason he had staged Canada.
Manufactured.
Marcus said quietly:
“She planted it.”
Chadworth’s face went cold.
“Yes.”
“Want me to retrieve it?”
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Not yet.”
Chadworth picked up his phone.
Opened the message Sabina had sent him two nights earlier.
I hate saying this, but you may want someone to check Rosamund’s room while you’re away. I saw her near my jewelry case again.
Again.
The word had done the work.
No proof.
No direct accusation that could later be challenged.
Just suggestion.
Chadworth had supplied the rest himself.
That realization humiliated him.
Sabina had not made him distrust Rosamund.
She had only shown him where to place the seed.
He had watered it.
---
At 10:40, Sabina called someone.
Not from her cell.
From the landline in the study.
The study camera had no audio for confidential business reasons.
But Marcus checked the call log.
A law firm.
Gaines, Porter & Bell.
Chadworth recognized it.
Sabina’s attorney.
“Why is she calling her lawyer from my study?”
Marcus said:
“Maybe because she doesn’t want the call on her phone.”
Chadworth looked at him.
“Thank you for the obvious.”
“You pay me well for it.”
Normally Chadworth might have smiled.
Not today.
---
Twenty minutes later, a document arrived on the study printer.
Sabina picked it up.
She read it.
Then left the first page face-down on the desk when she went to answer another call.
The camera caught only the back.
No use.
Then Lorelai ran through the hallway chasing the family dog.
Sabina returned.
Grabbed the pages.
Shoved them inside a leather folio.
But one page slipped free.
She did not notice.
It landed face-up beneath the edge of the desk.
The camera angle captured part of the heading.
Marcus froze the frame.
Enlarged.
Most of it blurred.
But enough remained.
PRESCOTT CHILDREN IRREVOCABLE TRUST
Chadworth stopped.
“What the hell?”
That trust had nothing to do with Sabina.
It belonged to Gemma and Lorelai.
Their mother had established it before she died.
Chadworth served as primary trustee.
His brother, William, as successor.
Sabina had no role.
None.
“Bring me the trust documents.”
Marcus opened a secure terminal.
Chadworth read.
Then again.
Nothing changed.
If Chadworth died before both girls turned twenty-five, William became managing trustee.
Custodial arrangements remained separate.
So why was Sabina consulting a lawyer?
Marcus pointed toward another section.
“Marriage amendment.”
Chadworth frowned.
“What?”
“Page seventy-one.”
The trust permitted modification of certain administrative roles under limited circumstances if Chadworth remarried and added a spouse through formal instruments.
Not ownership.
Not automatic guardianship.
But influence.
Enough to matter.
Especially if Chadworth changed successor trustees.
And Sabina had spent the past month telling him William was irresponsible.
Another seed.
He sat slowly.
“How long has she been doing this?”
Marcus answered:
May you like
“We’re going to find out.”
---
