Chapter 21 The Arrest
The Arrest
Maren
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The call comes while I'm elbow-deep in pastry dough, my phone buzzing against the flour-dusted counter with a number I've saved. Deputy Ellis.
I wipe my hands on my apron and answer with my heart already climbing into my throat. "This is Maren."
"Mrs. Wilder, this is Deputy Ellis." His voice is firmer than it was when all he could offer me was a photograph of a stranger. "I wanted to inform you personally. We've made an arrest in your robbery."
The words hit me sideways, and I have to grip the counter to stay upright. "An arrest."
"Shay Denton was taken into custody this morning in Billings.
" Ellis pauses, letting that sink in. "One of the other participants in the robbery came forward and cooperated.
He turned over his phone. There were messages from Denton giving detailed information about the house layout, confirming when you'd be alone. "
I close my eyes and see her face. Shay, smiling at me across the kitchen table while I made her coffee. Shay, asking casual questions about my grandmother's jewelry, picking it up without asking and wondering why I left it in an open box.
I reach for a clean order pad, needing to write this down before I forget any of it.
Ellis keeps explaining. "The pawn shop records in Casper corroborated everything.
The cooperating man identified the seller we'd been trying to trace.
Investigators matched that identification to the pawn shop footage and checked the messages against the records.
We have solid evidence for the charges."
I brace my palm against the counter, needing facts I can hold on to. "What charges?"
"Conspiracy to commit burglary, trafficking in stolen property.
More may follow as the investigation continues.
" Ellis clears his throat. "I should also tell you...
the opal has been verified as your property.
There's some paperwork to process for its release, but you should have it back within the week. "
Grandma's opal. I picture her hands at the clasp in Delilah's wedding photograph, her concentration on getting it straight for me. I want it back against my skin.
I've imagined this moment for months. I thought I'd feel triumphant, vindicated, whole again. Instead, I don't know what to do with my hands. I keep wiping them on an apron that's already clean.
Ellis waits long enough that I hear him check whether the line is still connected. "Mrs. Wilder? Are you still there?"
"Yes." I force myself to breathe. "Thank you for calling, Deputy. I appreciate you telling me personally."
He gives me the office extension in case I miss the next call. "Of course. I'll be in touch about the paperwork."
I hang up and stand in my kitchen surrounded by half-finished pastry and the ruins of the life I thought I understood.
Shay Denton. The girl Jackson told me about before he ever hired her: the theft conviction, the rough past, the second chance she supposedly deserved.
I'd agreed to give her that chance. I'd welcomed her into our home.
And she'd used every kindness I showed her to map out exactly how to take what mattered most.
My hands are shaking when I dial my mother-in-law.
"Sweetheart?" Delilah answers on the second ring, concern already threading through her voice. "What's wrong?"
"They arrested her." I can barely get the words out. "Shay. She planned the whole thing, Delilah. She gave them the layout of the house, told them when I'd be alone."
"Oh, honey." I hear rustling, like she's already reaching for her keys. "I'm coming over. Don't move."
I look around the rented kitchen, remembering she won't know which door to come to. "I'm at the commercial kitchen."
I hear Delilah collect her keys before she finishes answering. "Then I'll be there in ten minutes."
She hangs up before I can argue, and I'm grateful because I'm not sure I have any arguments left in me. I sink onto the stool by the prep counter and stare at the wall, trying to make sense of something that will never make sense.
Shay knew I'd be alone that night. She knew because I'd told Jackson I was staying home, and Jackson...
Jackson ignored my calls. Jackson was with Shay at Riley's, drinking soda and offering comfort for whatever crisis she'd manufactured, while three masked men broke into our home and I hid in the safe room praying he'd answer.
The anger rises so fast it steals my breath.
Not the cold, distant anger I've nursed for months, but something hot and immediate and devastating.
Because here's the truth I can no longer avoid: the robbery wasn't random.
It was planned, targeted, personal. And my husband was exactly where Shay needed him to be while her accomplices terrorized me.
I don't believe Jackson knew. He would have come for me if he had. I hate that I can still be sure of that and still remember his name on the screen, ringing.
The door opens and Delilah sweeps in like a force of nature, her arms already reaching for me before she's fully through the threshold.
"Come here." She pulls me into a hug that smells like her gardenia perfume and feels like home. "Tell me everything."
I tell her what Ellis said, the words tumbling out in fragments. The cooperating accomplice, the phone messages, the pawn shop records. She holds me through all of it, murmuring soft sounds of comfort that don't require words.
Delilah covers my bare throat gently with her hand, right where the pendant belongs. "Your grandmother's opal. They verified it?"
"It'll be back within the week." I pull back to look at her face, needing to see her reaction. "I thought I'd feel better when we knew. When there was proof. But I just feel..."
Delilah keeps her arms around me while I try to find the word. "Violated all over again?"
"Yes." The word comes out like a sob. "She sat in my kitchen, Delilah. She ate my food. She picked up Grandma's opal and asked what it was worth, and the whole time she was planning how to take it from me."
"Some people are very good at pretending." Delilah smooths my hair back from my face, a gesture I've come to trust through the years I've known her. "That's not a reflection of you, sweetheart. You offered kindness to someone who didn't deserve it. That makes her a monster, not you a fool."
My phone buzzes again, and I glance at the screen to see Jackson's name. I stare at it for a long moment before answering.
"Maren." His voice is rough, the way it gets when he's trying to control strong emotion. "Ellis called me. Are you okay?"
I lean against Delilah's shoulder while I answer him. "Delilah's with me."
"Good." I hear him exhale. "I can't believe...Shay. This whole time, it was Shay. I'm so sorry, Maren. I never thought she'd..."
"You told me about her conviction before you hired her." I cut him off, not cruelly but firmly. "You said she deserved a second chance, and I agreed. We both trusted her."
"But I brought her onto the property." The guilt in his voice is raw, unfiltered. "I ignored your calls that night because I was with her, and she...God, she must have known. She must have planned the whole thing around keeping me away."
I look at the flour on my apron, still trying to take in the planning behind the robbery. "Probably."
"I want to drive to Billings and..." He stops himself, breathes. "I don't know what I want. I'm so angry I can barely see straight."
I press my free hand to my forehead, tired of having to think about Shay again. "Me too."
Jackson's voice catches, and I can picture him reaching for his keys. "Can I come over? I need to see you."
I look at my mother-in-law, who's watching me with careful neutrality, letting me make my own choice. "Not right now. I want to finish here with Delilah first."
"Okay." He accepts it without argument, which I appreciate. "Will you call me later? When you're ready?"
I can give him that much. I don't want to leave this conversation unfinished. "Yes."
"Maren?" His voice drops, intimate despite the distance. "I know this doesn't change anything about that night. Shay being a criminal doesn't erase the fact that I wasn't there when you needed me. I'm not trying to use this as an excuse."
Something in my chest loosens slightly. "I know you're not."
"I just wanted you to hear me say it." He pauses. "I love you. I'll be here whenever you're ready."
After I hang up, Delilah raises an eyebrow. "He heard you tell him not to come over."
"He's trying." I set my phone down and look at the abandoned pastry dough, which I covered before sitting down. "That doesn't mean I'm ready to forget everything that happened."
Delilah pulls her stool closer and stays beside me while I stop trying to make the news feel good. "Do you want me to take you home?"
I look at the covered dough and the clean trays waiting beside it. I don't want to abandon the whole day to Shay. "Not yet. Stay while I finish here?"
"I can manage that." She takes off her coat and hangs it beside the door. "Then we'll find you something to eat."
I keep my hand around hers for another moment. "There's something I want to tell Jackson. About waiting in that room. He knows what happened, but I don't think he knows what I kept hoping for."
Delilah waits instead of guessing for me.
I squeeze her hand. "He asked me to dinner at the main house. Before all this happened. I said I'd think about it."
Delilah waits for me to decide instead of telling me what she'd do. "And?"
I look at the flour-covered counter, the evidence of a life I've built with my own hands, my own skills, my own stubborn determination to be more than someone's neglected wife. "I think I'm going to say yes."
Delilah leaves her hand under mine. "You can still come to mine afterward if you want company."
I let myself consider the dinner without deciding anything beyond it. "I'd like to see him."
Delilah reaches for a clean towel and puts it beside me. "Then call him. I'll still be here."
The tears come then, finally, sliding down my cheeks while my mother-in-law holds me in a rented commercial kitchen surrounded by covered pastry dough.
I cry for my grandmother's opal and for the girl I was on my wedding day and for all the pieces of my marriage that shattered so quietly I didn't hear them break until it was too late.
When I can speak again, I call Jackson and accept the dinner. I want to finish a conversation Shay has nothing to do with.
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