Chapter 1
The ring lay in my palm.
Black onyx. Heavy gold. Savelli crest.
There was a tiny dent beneath the left edge where I had struck it with my father’s watch when I was sixteen. He had complained about it for years.
This was not similar.
This was his.
“I buried my father wearing this ring,” I said. “Who brought it back?”
Celeste’s face filled with fear.
Nolan stopped trying to stand.
That was answer enough to tell me neither of them believed in ghosts.
I crouched in front of Ava.
“Sweetheart, tell me about the man.”
She pressed both hands against my shoulders.
“He had Grandpa’s coat.”
“What did he look like?”
“Old.”
Useful.
June almost smiled despite herself.
Ava continued.
“He gave me bag.”
“The pouch.”
She nodded.
“What did he say?”
Her little face tightened as she tried to remember.
“Only Daddy.”
Anything else?
She leaned close.
“He said ask Daddy who talked with Grandpa’s hand after Grandpa died.”
Every adult in the foyer went still.
I looked slowly toward Nolan.
His expression changed.
There.
Something.
Not murder.
Memory.
I stood.
“Who talked with my father’s hand?”
Nolan stared at me.
Celeste stepped forward.
“This is insane.”
I looked at her.
“You nearly sent my daughter down a staircase for a velvet pouch.”
Her jaw tightened.
“So I’m done measuring insanity by your standards.”
June spoke quietly.
“I saw the man.”
I turned.
“When?”
“About twenty minutes before you arrived.”
Celeste snapped her name.
June ignored her.
Good.
“He came through the old service entrance.”
“Did you know him?”
June hesitated.
“Yes.”
The room disappeared around us.
“Who?”
She looked at the ring.
“Arthur Vale.”
I knew the name.
Everyone in the Savelli family did.
My father’s former bodyguard.
The man blamed for stealing valuables from the funeral suite four years earlier.
The man I personally banished from every Savelli property.
I stared at June.
“Arthur stole this ring.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“He stole it back.”
Silence.
I looked at Nolan.
His face had gone white.
May you like
And suddenly the question was no longer how my father’s ring escaped the grave.
It was why my brother-in-law-to-be had possessed it after the funeral.
