Chapter 7 - THE NECKLACE TAKEN FROM EMMA’S FATHER.
Arthur denied taking anything from Emma.
Lily explained that Richard had removed the necklace from her mother’s apartment during their divorce and given it to Arthur.
Security opened his briefcase under the watch of arriving police officers.
Inside was a silver key hanging from a worn chain.
Emma recognized it immediately.
Her father wore it every day until his death.
Arthur claimed it opened an abandoned maintenance locker.
Rosa knew better.
The key belonged to the hotel’s original records vault beneath the ballroom.
Thomas Reed had hidden worker contracts there after realizing the Hale family intended to erase the crew’s ownership.
Richard called the vault private property.
Emma looked around at the employees.
“You keep using ‘private’ to describe anything stolen where poor people cannot afford to search.”
Police opened the vault.
They found contracts, pension ledgers, and recordings of Arthur ordering managers to classify workers as temporary contractors after decades of service.
But Thomas’s final notebook was missing.
The empty shelf contained a recent fingerprint.
It belonged to Caroline’s new husband, Nathan Cole.
Caroline stared at the man waiting near the altar.
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Nathan had never owned a construction company.
He had been hired by Arthur to marry her and recover the notebook.
