Chapter 6 - The Ballroom Chase
The security guard lifted the bouquet.
Rosa moved first.
“Stop!”
Heads turned across the ballroom.
Arthur caught her wrist. “Don’t.”
Rosa yanked free. “Take your hand off me.”
Naomi raised her phone.
Arthur saw it and released Rosa immediately.
Celeste stepped down from the stage. “Dad, what is going on?”
“Nothing. Go back to the microphone.”
“No.”
The guard carried the bouquet toward a service hallway.
Rosa hurried after him. Naomi followed. Celeste did too.
Arthur cursed under his breath and came behind them.
The ballroom doors swung shut, muffling the music.
“Put the flowers down,” Rosa told the guard.
He looked at Arthur.
Arthur said, “Take them to the loading dock.”
Celeste stared at her father. “Why do you care about a bouquet?”
“I don’t.”
“Then why are you sweating?”
Arthur’s face hardened.
The guard pushed through the kitchen doors. Rosa followed him between cooks, trays, steam, and startled servers. He reached the loading dock and headed for a dumpster.
Naomi shouted, “He’s throwing them away!”
Rosa grabbed the brown paper and pulled.
The bouquet split open.
Roses scattered across the concrete.
A brass key hit the floor with a sharp metallic click.
Everyone froze.
Celeste stared at it.
Rosa bent down and picked it up.
Arthur said nothing.
Naomi zoomed in with her phone.
On the key was a stamped number: 314.
Celeste whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Rosa looked at her. “You know what it opens?”
Celeste swallowed.
“My mother rented a private safe-deposit box at First Federal. Box 314.”
Arthur’s face went flat.
“Your mother closed that account years ago.”
Celeste turned to him. “No, she didn’t.”
“How would you know?”
“Because three days before she died, she made me promise never to let you open it.”
Silence.
Arthur looked at his daughter for a long moment.
Then he smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“You should have told me that sooner.”
May you like
Behind them, the loading-dock door slammed shut.
The lock clicked from the outside.
