Chapter 6 - The Unraveling-6
The room went dead silent for two full seconds.
Heather’s fingers froze on her phone screen. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise before her face contorted into a mask of dramatic outrage. "What did you just say to me?!"
"Watch your mouth, Joanna!" Walter roared from the table, slamming his heavy fist against the wood so hard his teacup rattled. "You come into my home after running away like a coward, and you throw wild accusations at my daughter?!"
"It's not an accusation, Walter," I said, my voice remaining completely level, carrying a cool authority that made Elmer frown in sudden unease. "On Tuesday afternoon at 2:14 PM, Heather walked over to your desk vault. She used a brass key she stole from your nightstand three weeks ago to open your lower drawer. She extracted the real gold filigree bracelet left by Lydia’s mother and replaced it with a cheap twenty-dollar counterfeit she bought at a costume shop downtown."
Lydia turned her head sharply to look at Heather. "What is she talking about?"
"She's lying, Mom!" Heather shrieked, standing up from the couch, her face flushing a dark, blotchy red. "She's making up stories to protect her brat!"
"And then," I continued seamlessly, ignoring Heather’s scream, "Heather walked over to the coat rack and slipped the cheap replica into the mesh side-pocket of Louisa’s dinosaur backpack. She took the real gold bracelet to Kaufman Jewelers on 5th Street at 10:30 this morning and sold it for fourteen hundred dollars cash."
Heather dropped her phone. It clattered loudly against the hardwood floor. The sheer, terrifying accuracy of my details stripped away her ability to synthesize a plausible lie.
"Heather..." Lydia whispered, her voice trembling as she looked at her daughter’s pale, bloodless face. "Is... is that true?"
"Mom, no! I... I needed the money for my rent!" Heather babbled frantically, instantly breaking under the pressure. "You always give everything to Elmer! You never help me! It was just an old bracelet you never even wear!"
Lydia let out a sharp, horrified gasp, her hand flying to her throat as she realized she had shaved her three-year-old granddaughter's head, forced her onto a freezing balcony in her pajamas, and physically terrorized her over a theft executed by her own adult daughter.
"You..." Lydia stammered, turning toward Heather with raw rage. "You stole from my own mother's memory?!"
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"Shut up, both of you!" Walter growled, standing up from his chair, his eyes fixed on me with a dangerous, predatory glare. He took a heavy step toward me, his broad shoulders squared. "How do you know all this, Joanna? Who told you about Kaufman Jewelers? Who told you about the desk drawer?"
"Nobody told me, Walter," I said, pulling my phone from my pocket and tapping the screen to display the live cloud security feed interface. "I watched it. In 4K resolution. With crystal-clear audio."
