“Where is she?”
Marcus and I looked at each other.
“Vanessa.”
She appeared less than a minute later.
Same cream coat.
Same perfect appearance.
Richard followed several steps behind her.
He looked exhausted.
“Where is Princess?”
Then Vanessa saw me.
Her face hardened.
“You.”
I removed the note from the carrier.
“Do you recognize this handwriting?”
Vanessa looked at it.
Then at Richard.
Her expression changed.
“You left my dog here?”
“Yes,” Richard said.
“You left Princess overnight in a security office?”
“Yes.”
She reached for the carrier.
“We’re leaving.”
Richard stepped between her and the dog.
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“Move.”
“Mr. Bennett needs to hear something first.”
Vanessa went pale.
“We don’t have time. Princess could be sick.”
Richard stared at her.
“I’m sure the veterinarian will tell us exactly what happened last time.”
Vanessa froze.
I looked between them.
“What happened last time?”
“Nothing,” Vanessa snapped.
Richard ignored her.
“Six months ago, Princess swallowed one of Vanessa’s diamond earrings.”
My heart seemed to stop.
“We searched our entire house,” Richard continued. “We assumed the earring was lost.”
He looked at the little dog.
“Then Princess became sick. The veterinarian took an X-ray.”
He paused.
“The earring was in her stomach.”
The room went completely silent.
Suddenly, there was another explanation for the missing ring.
A tiny dog.
A dog that had already swallowed expensive jewelry once before.
And Vanessa had known about it.
“That proves nothing,” Vanessa said quickly.
Richard turned toward her.
“When your ring disappeared yesterday, what was the first thing I asked you?”
She said nothing.
“I asked whether Princess might have swallowed it.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“We didn’t know.”
Something inside me finally snapped into place.
“You didn’t know I stole it either.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“You had another possible explanation.”
My voice was steady now.
“Your own husband reminded you of it before you came downstairs.”
She said nothing.
“But instead of checking, you pointed at the housekeeper.”
I stepped closer.
“You let them fire me even though you knew there was another explanation.”
For the first time since I met Vanessa, she had no immediate answer.
Mr. Bennett had gone pale.
Richard looked at him.
“After Rachel was fired, I told Vanessa to contact the hotel and explain what happened with Princess before.”
Vanessa glared at him.
“Stop.”
Richard’s voice rose.
“You had no right to destroy this woman’s job when you weren’t even sure.”
I looked at him.
“Is that why you left Princess here?”
He nodded.
“Vanessa would never have come back voluntarily.”
His expression hardened as he looked at his wife.
“But I knew she would come back for Princess.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with angry tears.
“You used my dog to humiliate me.”
“No.”
