Chapter 1 - Camera Four
Evelyn Hartwell had already shoved the diamond brooch into eight-year-old Ivy’s backpack when the child cried, “Stop!”
The word carried farther than Ivy intended.
It cut through the orchestra rehearsal, the shouted lighting cues, and the metallic groan of a camera crane moving above Stage Twelve at Hartwell Studios.
For one second, nobody understood what they had heard.
Then Evelyn seized Ivy’s wrist.
The little girl’s black velvet backpack swung from her shoulder, bumping against the pale-blue formal dress Mara had helped her choose that afternoon.
“What did you put in there?” Evelyn demanded.
Ivy stared at her grandmother.
“You did.”
Evelyn’s face hardened.
She ripped open the backpack, plunged one manicured hand inside, and pulled out a platinum brooch blazing with diamonds beneath the studio lights.
Several people gasped.
Julian Hartwell came hurrying across the fake ballroom floor.
His tuxedo jacket was unbuttoned, his headset still hanging around his neck.
“What happened?”
Evelyn raised the brooch.
“She stole my diamond.”
Silence spread across the soundstage.
Crew members stopped moving.
A pair of actresses waiting for their rehearsal cue lowered their scripts.
Even the orchestra conductor turned around.
Ivy’s face lost all its color.
“No.”
Evelyn gripped her wrist tighter.
“I found this in her bag.”
“You put it there!”
“Ivy!”
Julian’s voice was sharper than the child had ever heard it.
Mara crossed the stage before she consciously decided to move.
“Let her go.”
Evelyn looked at her daughter-in-law.
“This is a family matter.”
“You’re hurting her.”
Mara pulled Ivy free.
The girl immediately wrapped both arms around her mother’s waist.
Mara could feel her shaking.
“She put it in my bag,” Ivy whispered.
Mara looked at Julian.
He had heard.
Everyone had heard.
Yet he did not come to his daughter.
He stepped closer to Evelyn.
“Mother, where was the brooch?”
“In my private dressing room.”
“That’s not true,” Ivy said.
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
Julian looked down at his daughter.
“Ivy, if you took something—”
“I didn’t!”
“Julian,” Mara said quietly.
He glanced at her.
“Make Ivy apologize.”
Mara thought she had misunderstood him.
“What?”
“This has already become a spectacle.”
“A spectacle?”
Mara pointed toward Ivy.
“Your mother just accused our eight-year-old daughter of stealing a diamond in front of half the studio.”
Julian lowered his voice.
“We can discuss what happened privately.”
“She told you what happened.”
“Mara—”
“You believe Evelyn?”
His hesitation was brief.
But it was long enough.
Ivy felt it too.
Mara knew because her daughter’s grip tightened around her.
Julian said, “I believe we need to calm down.”
“No,” Mara said. “You believe your mother.”
Evelyn lifted her chin.
“Your daughter was caught with my property.”
Something on the far side of the stage flickered.
Mara’s eyes moved toward the row of production monitors beneath the lighting booth.
The rehearsal was being recorded from several angles so the director could review camera positions before the live broadcast.
Camera One showed the podium.
Camera Two showed the orchestra.
Camera Three held a wide shot of the ballroom set.
Camera Four was replaying a close angle beside the guest tables.
Mara stopped breathing.
On the screen, Ivy stood with her back half turned, distracted by a tray of prop awards.
Evelyn approached.
Her hand moved toward Ivy’s backpack.
The diamonds disappeared inside.
Mara’s fear vanished so completely it frightened her.
She became very still.
“Camera Four saw everything.”
Evelyn turned.
Her expression changed.
Not much.
A slight widening of her eyes.
A hesitation.
But Mara had known her for eleven years.
She saw fear.
Julian followed her gaze.
The replay started again.
Evelyn’s hand.
The open backpack.
The brooch.
Ivy’s startled turn.
Julian looked as though someone had struck him.
“Mother?”
Evelyn recovered quickly.
“That isn’t what it looks like.”
“What does it look like?” Mara asked.
Evelyn faced her.
“I was returning something Ivy had already taken.”
“Liar!” Ivy cried.
Security personnel were already moving toward them.
Marcus Shaw, Hartwell Studios’ head of security, crossed the stage with two officers.
“Mrs. Hartwell,” he said to Evelyn, “I need you to give me the brooch.”
Evelyn closed her fingers around it.
“This belongs to me.”
Marcus did not move.
“Then there should be no problem documenting it.”
For several seconds, Evelyn stared at him.
Then she dropped the brooch into his gloved evidence pouch.
Julian finally looked at Ivy.
“Honey—”
He stepped forward.
Mara raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Ivy’s face crumpled, but she refused to cry in front of him.
Mara knelt and pulled her close.
“I believe you.”
Ivy buried her face against Mara’s shoulder.
Security began clearing the immediate area.
The rehearsal director shouted for everyone to take twenty minutes, but nobody moved far. Whispers followed Evelyn across the stage as Marcus escorted her toward a conference room.
Julian remained where Mara had stopped him.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
“You didn’t need to know everything.”
Mara’s voice shook now.
“You only needed to know your daughter.”
Julian flinched.
Ivy lifted her head.
There was still something terrified in her expression.
“Mama.”
“What?”
“I saw Grandma take it.”
Mara brushed hair away from her face.
“Take what?”
“The diamond.”
“From where?”
Ivy looked toward the dark corridor leading behind the sets.
“The old costume room.”
Julian frowned.
“What old costume room?”
“The one with the red door.”
Marcus, who had been walking away, stopped.
Stage Twelve had no public costume room with a red door.
But Hartwell Studios did have an old secured heritage vault behind the adjoining soundstage.
And its service entrance was red.
Marcus turned slowly.
“Ivy,” he said, “are you sure?”
She nodded.
“I followed Grandma because she told me to wait, but she was acting weird.”
“What did you see?”
Ivy swallowed.
“She opened a metal drawer.”
Evelyn, twenty feet away, went rigid.
Ivy pointed at the evidence pouch.
“She took that diamond out.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Ivy added the sentence that changed everything.
“She said, ‘After all these years, you’re finally going to save me again.’”
Marcus looked at Julian.
Julian looked at his mother.
May you like
And for the first time that night, Evelyn Hartwell had no answer.
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