The military duffel landed just inside the doorway with a heavy thud.
Marcus’s smile disappeared.
The front door opened wider, and Daniel stepped into the house wearing travel-worn fatigues.
His shoulders were rigid from the long flight, his face drawn with exhaustion, but his eyes sharpened the instant he saw the room.
Pearls covered the floor.
His sister was wearing my robe and brooch.
His brother had muddy boots on my coffee table.
His mother stood over me with my grandmother’s broken necklace wrapped around her fist.
Then Daniel saw the red mark across my cheek.
“What happened?” he asked.
Gloria recovered first.
She loosened her hand, letting the necklace dangle as though she had merely picked it up.
“She became hysterical,” she said.
“We came here to discuss the financial mess she created, and she attacked us.”
Tessa quickly pulled the robe closed.
“She accused us of stealing,” she added.
“She’s been unstable since you deployed.”
Marcus stood and removed his boots from the table, but the movement came too late.
Wet dirt had already stained the wood.
“You should have warned us you were coming home,” he told Daniel, trying to sound offended rather than afraid.
Daniel did not answer him.
He crossed the room and stopped in front of me.
His gaze moved from my cheek to the cut on my collarbone.
“Did one of them hit you?”
I looked at Gloria.
She lifted her chin.
“It was a family disagreement.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
Not dramatically.
He did not shout or lunge at anyone.
The warmth simply left his face.
He knew the necklace.
My grandmother had worn it at her wedding, then left it to me with a handwritten note tucked inside the box.
Daniel had fastened it around my neck the morning we married.
He turned toward his mother.
“Give it back.”
Gloria extended the broken necklace as if returning it proved her innocence.
“She was flaunting it while refusing to help your brother,” she said.
“Marcus is in serious trouble.
We were trying to protect this family.”
I placed my palm beneath the loose strand.
Several pearls fell into my hand.
Others remained scattered under the furniture.
“Do not touch anything else,” I said.
Tessa laughed nervously.
“Listen to her.
She thinks she’s conducting an investigation.”
“I am.”
I walked to the coffee table and picked up the folder.
Marcus moved toward me, but Daniel stepped between us.
For the first time that evening, Marcus appeared to understand that Daniel had not come home by accident.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
Daniel kept his eyes on him.
“My command received notice that someone had used my identity to secure multiple private loans while I was deployed.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“That could have been anyone.”
