Chapter 18 - The Final Tier
Camila stared at Elena.
"The cake?"
"Your mother gave me a tiny recorder six years ago. Later, I copied the audio to a memory card. When I ordered the cake, I asked your assistant whether one decorative piece could hide something small."
Camila understood.
"The gold anniversary medallion."
Elena nodded.
The medallion was a palm-sized sugar plaque mounted against the back of the top tier. Camila's team had built a hollow acrylic shell behind it for a surprise note from Rafael.
Mateo blinked. "Mom planned this?"
"No," Elena said. "She gave me the recording. I decided where to hide the copy when I realized Daniel might be involved with Bianca again."
"Again?" Rafael asked.
Elena looked at him sadly. "I suspected. I didn't know."
Back in the ballroom, guests had been moved to the hotel lounge while police worked.
The giant cake stood under dimmed chandeliers, damaged but upright.
Camila climbed a small step ladder.
She removed the sugar plaque.
Behind it was the acrylic compartment.
Empty.
"No," Elena whispered.
Camila checked again.
Nothing.
Victoria looked toward Bianca, who had been brought back upstairs for questioning.
"You took it."
Bianca shook her head. "I didn't know it existed."
Daniel laughed bitterly. "Neither did I."
Camila looked at the cake.
Someone had known.
She examined the top tier.
A faint thumbprint marked the fondant near the medallion.
Small hand.
Noah?
No. His fingers were larger.
She looked across the ballroom.
At the children's table.
One place setting was empty.
Victoria followed her gaze. "Where's Sofia?"
Sofia Salazar was Victoria's eight-year-old cousin.
Elena's youngest grandchild.
A flower girl at every family wedding and a professional collector of anything shiny.
They found her under the grand staircase eating chocolate-covered strawberries.
Camila crouched. "Sofia, honey, did you take something gold off the cake?"
The child's eyes widened.
"No."
Chocolate covered half her mouth.
Victoria knelt. "Sof."
Sofia sighed dramatically. "I thought it was a treasure coin."
"Where is it?"
"In my purse."
"Where's your purse?"
Sofia pointed toward the coat room.
The tiny purse was pink, glittery, and missing.
Security footage showed Sofia carrying it into the coat room at 8:51.
At 8:54, Adrian entered.
At 8:55, he left holding something inside his jacket.
Everyone looked toward the officers guarding him.
They searched Adrian again.
No purse.
He smiled through his swollen nose.
"You people really should keep better track of your things."
Rafael took a step toward him.
Elena stopped her husband with one hand.
Then she looked at Adrian.
"You took an eight-year-old's purse?"
Adrian shrugged. "I took insurance."
"Where is it?"
He smiled.
"Gone."
A hotel employee burst into the ballroom.
"Mr. Pierce! There's smoke in the service courtyard."
Camila ran toward the doors.
Through the glass, orange flames rose from a metal trash bin.
And inside the fire, something pink glittered.
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