Chapter 2 - The Video Shows Vanessa Planting Something
The elderly man replayed the first two minutes.
Before Sophia had approached the VIP table, Vanessa had left her seat.
She walked toward the service station near the bar.
No one seemed to notice.
Then she slipped something small and glittering into the side pocket of
a black server apron hanging on a hook.
Sophia’s apron.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“What did she put there?”
The man zoomed in.
A sapphire bracelet.
Vanessa went pale.
Sophia touched the pocket of her apron.
Her fingers found something hard.
She pulled out the bracelet.
Vanessa immediately shouted:
“There! I knew it!”
The rooftop erupted again.
“You stole from me!”
Sophia stared at the jewelry.
“I’ve never seen this before.”
Vanessa pointed at her.
“That bracelet belonged to my grandmother.”
Adrian looked at the elderly man.
He was no longer merely recording.
He looked furious.
“Who are you?” Adrian asked.
The man answered quietly.
“My name is Harold Bennett.”
Vanessa’s face changed again.
Sophia noticed.
She had heard that name before.
Her mother had once mentioned a Harold Bennett in a box of old letters.
May you like
And suddenly the bracelet felt less like evidence of theft—
and more like a message from the past.
