For the first time, I noticed the clasp was slightly thicker than it should have been.
“Martin,” I said.
He stood.
“What?”
“Did my grandmother ever mention the bracelet?”
His face went carefully blank.
Too carefully.
“Emily—”
Before he could finish, the back office phone rang.
Not my cell.
The restaurant landline.
At nearly midnight.
We both stared toward the hallway.
The phone rang again.
Then again.
Martin’s expression changed from concern to recognition.
“Do not answer that,” he said.
“Why?”
He was already moving toward the office. “Because only three people have that number for after-hours emergencies.”
“Who?”
He stopped at the hallway entrance.
“You. Me.” His eyes dropped to the bracelet on the table. “And Samuel Reed.”
The ringing continued.
I stood slowly, every part of me suddenly awake.
Martin shook his head once. “Emily, wait.”
But I was done waiting.
I walked into the office and lifted the receiver.
For one breath, there was only static.
Then a man’s voice, older and unfamiliar, spoke my name as if he had known me all my life.
“Emily Rose,” he said softly. “Your grandmother told me this day would come. Look inside the bracelet before your sister does.”