Chapter 5
Tabitha stared at my phone.
Her mouth opened and closed.
No sound came out.
“Your little act this afternoon?” I said. “Every word of it. Every insult. Every threat. The bucket. The lies you just told Robin. The moment you attacked me to get the recorder. All of it. They saw every second.”
I nodded at the screen.
“Say hello, Tabitha.”
Teresa’s voice came through the speaker, sharp and steady.
“We heard it all, Miss Tabitha. Every bit of it. And every one of us is willing to sign a sworn affidavit about how you’ve treated us since the day you moved in. About the names you called us. The way you made us work eighteen-hour days without a break. The time you threw a plate of food at Maria because the soup was one degree too cold. The time you made Luis scrub the entire driveway on his knees in the rain because you didn’t like the way the gravel looked.”
Luis leaned into the frame.
“I already called the police,” he said, his voice quiet but firm. “They’re on their way. For the assault on Mrs. Harrington. And for the thefts.”
Tabitha went white.
“Thefts?” she whispered.
“We’ve been keeping inventory,” I said. “Small things at first. A silver picture frame. My mother’s pearl brooch. A set of crystal wine glasses. Then bigger things. Stock certificates from the safe in my husband’s study. A diamond pendant I had locked away. We didn’t want to say anything to Robin without proof. We didn’t want to be just the staff making up stories about the boss’s fiancée. But we had cameras. Hidden ones. In the study. In the library. In my bedroom. And we have you, on tape, taking every single one of those things and hiding them in the false bottom of that large Louis Vuitton suitcase you keep in the guest closet.”
I paused.
“We were waiting for the right moment to show Robin,” I said. “You handed us that moment today when you poured that bucket over my head.”
Tabitha stumbled back until her shoulders hit the wall.
She slid down it until she was sitting on the floor, surrounded by lily petals and broken glass.
“You — you set me up,” she said, her voice cracking. “All of you. You planned this whole thing —”
“We gave you every chance,” Robin said.
He sounded exhausted.
Old.
Like he had aged ten years in the last hour.
“Mom told me. Teresa told me. Luis told me. Over and over. And I defended you. Every single time. I made excuses for you. I told them you were stressed, you were nervous, you didn’t mean it. I chose you over the people who have loved me my whole life. And you threw it all away. For what? A brooch? A few pieces of silver? A fake life you were never going to be able to keep?”
He knelt down in front of her.
He did not touch her.
“The engagement is over,” he said. “I want every ring, every gift, every piece of jewelry I ever bought you back by the end of the day. I want you out of this house in two hours. And if I ever see you within a hundred feet of my mother, or me, or anyone who works for this family again, I will not hesitate to press every single charge we have. Theft. Assault. Harassment. Fraud. Do you understand me?”
Tabitha looked up at him.
For a second I thought I saw a flicker of something real in her eyes.
Regret.
Maybe even sorrow.
But it was gone as fast as it had come.
“You will regret this,” she said, her voice cold and flat. “Both of you. You think you’ve won? You think this is over? I will make you sorry you were ever born. I swear to God —”
The sound of sirens cut her off.
They were close.
Getting closer.
Tabitha scrambled to her feet, her face wild.
She grabbed her purse from the table and ran for the front door.
She wrenched it open.
Two uniformed police officers were already walking up the front steps.
Tabitha froze.
Then she turned back.
She looked at me.
At Robin.
May you like
At the phone still in my hand, the staff still watching.
And for the first time all afternoon, she had absolutely nothing to say.
