Chapter 1
After our family dinner, I was left alone in the kitchen cleaning everyone’s plates when my mother-in-law suddenly screamed from upstairs, “My diamond ring is gone!”
I froze with my hands in the sink.
My hair was falling out of its messy bun, my back hurt, and not one person had offered to help me clean.
Then I heard Margaret running down the stairs.
“Where is she?”
My husband, Daniel, stood up from the couch.
“Mom, what happened?”
Margaret stormed into the kitchen and pointed straight at me.
“She stole my ring.”
I actually laughed because I thought she had to be joking.
“What?”
“My diamond ring was on my dresser before dinner, and now it’s gone.”
“I haven’t even been upstairs.”
She crossed the kitchen before I could move.
Her hand grabbed a fistful of my hair.
I screamed as she yanked me backward.
“Tell them where you put it!”
“Get off me!”
Instead, she dragged me across the kitchen floor in front of Daniel, his sister, and his father.
My knees scraped the tile while everyone just stared.
“Mom!” Daniel shouted.
For one second, I thought he was going to stop her.
Then he looked at me.
“Sarah, if you took it, just give it back.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You think I stole from her?”
Margaret pulled harder.
“She’s been jealous of me since the day you married her.”
I twisted free and stood up shaking.
“I cooked your dinner, served your guests, and cleaned your mess while all of you sat around laughing.”
Margaret pointed toward my purse on the counter.
“Then you won’t mind if we look inside.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped toward it anyway.
“Sarah, this will clear everything up.”
Before I could stop him, Margaret grabbed my purse and dumped everything onto the floor.
My phone, keys, wallet, and makeup scattered across the tile.
Then something small rolled beneath the kitchen table.
Daniel bent down and picked it up.
The room went silent.
A huge diamond ring was sitting in his palm.
Margaret smiled.
“I knew it.”
I stared at the ring, then at my husband.
“I have never seen that ring in my life.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Then how did it get into your purse?”
Before I could answer, my eight-year-old niece, Chloe, spoke from the doorway.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Grandma put it there.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Margaret went completely still.
Chloe started crying.
“I saw Grandma take Aunt Sarah’s purse upstairs before dinner.”
Margaret suddenly lunged toward the little girl.
“Stop lying!”
But Chloe’s father stepped between them.
May you like
Then Chloe pulled something from her pocket.
“I recorded her because she told me nobody would believe me.”
