I did not look at the screen at first.
I had watched the clip enough times already.
Grant entering my dressing room.
Grant leaving a few minutes later.
The small black jewelry box in his hand.
Grant glancing directly toward the camera.
That smile.
I had replayed that smile late at night after Vivian first asked me why I thought he would do something so careless.
Because it was not carelessness.
He had wanted me to discover what he had done.
He had wanted me to know Sloane had something that belonged to my mother.
And he had counted on rage doing the rest.
He knew exactly where my grief lived.
My mother had been dead long enough for strangers to think pearls were only jewelry.
Grant knew better.
He had seen me hold that necklace after the funeral.
He had watched me put it away carefully because I could not bear to wear it yet.
Taking it was not random.
Giving it to Sloane was not romantic.
It was bait.
The courtroom watched the video.
Sloane did too.
When Grant appeared carrying the jewelry box, her hand finally fell away from the pearls.
Vivian asked, “Is that the type of box in which Grant gave you the necklace?”
Sloane said nothing.
“Ms.
Avery?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what box it came in?”
“I don’t remember.”
Vivian nodded once.
“Earlier, you remembered the exact restaurant where Mrs.
Caldwell supposedly threatened you, the date, the approximate time, the words you say she used, and how frightened you felt.
But you cannot remember when you received the necklace you are wearing today?”
Sloane’s cheeks reddened.
“I was under stress.”
“So was Mrs.
Caldwell, presumably, when her dead mother’s jewelry disappeared.”
“Objection.”
“Sustained.”
Vivian did not argue.
She did not need to.
The point had landed.
Grant’s mother stared at the pearls now.
The expression on her face had changed from disapproval to something more complicated.
She had entered the room looking at me as though I were the family embarrassment.
Now her son was on a security recording leaving my private dressing room with a jewelry box in the middle of the night.
His father leaned toward him and whispered something.
Grant ignored him.
Vivian returned to the allegation at Le Jardin.
“You testified under oath that Mrs.
Caldwell threatened you outside that restaurant on December 14 at approximately nine in the evening.”
“Yes.”
“And we have established that the restaurant was closed for renovations at that time.”
“I could have mistaken the date.”
“You said December 14 twice during direct examination.”
