Chapter 5
The footsteps paused just outside the office door, and as Jewel held her breath, the scent of hay and old leather filled her lungs.
She barely had time to turn around before Cole appeared, his expression changing from casual to worried the moment he saw her standing there.
“Jewel? Are you okay? Sylvie said you were looking for—” His words cut off abruptly as his gaze dropped to the bracelet in her hand, catching the glare of the overhead light in his office. The turquoise stones seemed to glow in the harsh light.
The color drained from his face.
“What the…” His voice was rough, almost strangled, and he swallowed hard. “Why do you have Vivian’s bracelet?”
As she carefully observed him, she mentally cataloged every micro-expression and shift in his posture. His shock seemed genuine—the way his eyes widened, the involuntary step back he took, and how his hand rose as if to reach for the bracelet before uselessly dropping to his side.
But she’d been fooled before.
“Where did you find that?” His voice was now barely above a whisper, almost drowned out by the sound of horses shifting in their stalls and the soft thud of hooves on packed dirt.
She pointed toward the wall where the board still hung slightly crooked. “Behind a loose board. Right there. It was wrapped in cloth. Hidden.”
He stared at the wall, then looked back at the bracelet, his mouth opening and closing as if he couldn’t quite find the right words. Finally, he said, “That’s…Vivian’s. That’s definitely hers.”
“I know.”
He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture almost violent with frustration. “I don’t understand. How did it get there? Why would it be—” He stopped, his gaze snapping back to her face. His eyes were flat, tortured. “You think I put it there.”
“Did you?”
“No!” His denial was quick and firm. “Jesus, Jewel, no. I haven’t seen that bracelet in…I don’t even know how long. I wouldn’t… Why would I hide it?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
His jaw clenched as she watched him fight to keep his composure. Outside, a horse whinnied, and the familiar sound oddly contrasted with the tense silence crackling between them.
“When did you see it last? When’s the last time she was wearing it?”
He shook his head, looking almost dazed.
“I really don’t remember exactly. She wore it a lot.
Most days, I think. It was something she liked.
” His brow furrowed. “I remember she took it off sometimes when she was working in the garden or doing dishes. She’d set it on the windowsill above the sink so it wouldn’t get damaged. ”
“So she did take it off sometimes?”
He looked at the bracelet again, and she saw confusion more than anything else in his expression. “Yeah. Sometimes. But not often. I don’t understand why it would be here. In the barn. Here in my office.”
The words settled between them, heavy with implication. The evening had turned cooler, and she could feel the goose bumps rising on her arms despite her jacket.
“Cole—”
“I know how this looks. But I swear to God, I don’t know anything about this. I didn’t put it there. I didn’t hide it. I didn’t even know it was here.” His words came out choked.
She wanted to believe him. The desperation in his voice and the shock on his face all seemed so genuine. But evidence doesn’t lie, and there’s no denying that this evidence was incriminatory.
The memory of the car behind her earlier today flashed through her mind, and a thought flickered across her consciousness. What if someone planted the bracelet? Could someone be trying to frame him, make it look like he did something to Vivian?
She almost voiced her thoughts aloud, but snapped her mouth shut again at the last minute.
If he were guilty, if he had truly hidden the bracelet himself, he would jump at that explanation.
He would try to convince her that someone was setting him up, using it as a convenient excuse for why she had found it.
It was better to see what he came up with on his own.
She looked down at the silver bracelet, so cool and smooth in her palm. “We need to ask the others. Your mom, Conrad. Maybe one of them found it and set it aside for safekeeping.”
He nodded quickly. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s go ask them.”
They walked back to the house in silence, the bracelet still grasped in her hand.
The evening air carried that unique stillness that happens just before full dark, when the birds have gone quiet, but the night creatures haven’t yet begun their chorus.
Pine scent lingered heavily in the air, blending with wood smoke from somewhere down the valley.
Through the window, she watched Conrad and Sylvie in the kitchen.
Conrad was drying dishes as Sylvie put them away, the warm yellow light making the scene look like a painting.
Susan was in the living room with the children, reading them a story, Beckett’s blond head visible over the back of the couch.
It was all so normal. Peaceful. Completely at odds with the storm brewing in her chest.
Cole pushed through the door first, his voice bright but forced as he called out, “Hey, Mom, can you come to the kitchen for a second?”
The smell of roasted chicken still lingered in the air, mixed with dish soap and the faint sweetness of apple pie.
Conrad looked over, his expression immediately wary. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. We just…found something in the barn and need to ask you guys about it.”
Susan came to the doorway, the book still in her hands, with her reading glasses pushed up on her head. “Found what?”
Jewel held up the bracelet, watching as recognition appeared on Susan’s face. The older woman’s expression changed to surprise.
“Oh. Is that Vivian’s?”
“You recognize it?” Cole’s eyes were sharp, appraising.
His mother’s eyes darted between them, questioning. “Of course I do. She wore it quite a bit, didn’t she? Where did you find it?”
“In the barn office. Behind a loose board in the wall.”
Conrad slowly placed the dish towel on the counter, his movements deliberate. The kitchen suddenly felt too warm and too cramped. “The barn office?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I was in there all morning, going through some of the lodge paperwork you asked me to look at. I didn’t see anything.”
Cole’s jaw tightened. “You were in my office?”
Conrad’s gaze was steady, but Jewel could see his mind working. “Yeah, for two hours at least. But I guess if it were hidden behind a board, I wouldn’t have noticed it unless I was specifically looking.”
“Did either of you find it? Maybe you put it there for safekeeping or something?” Jewel asked both Conrad and Susan, even though she already knew what they would say.
Susan shook her head immediately. “No. I haven’t been in that office in months. Not since before Vivian left.”
Conrad also shook his head. “I’ve never seen it before. At least, not that I remember. But it’s not exactly the kind of thing I’d notice or pay attention to.”
Sylvie had been quiet, but now she spoke up, her hand resting on Conrad’s shoulder. “Could it have been there for a while? Since before she left?”
“Maybe.” Cole didn’t sound convinced. “But I don’t know why she’d hide it in my office. She usually kept her jewelry in the bedroom.”
No one had an answer for that.
Beckett’s voice drifted in from the living room, sleepy and asking when they were going home. The normalcy of it felt jarring amid the tension in the kitchen.
Cole cleared his throat. “We should probably get going. It’s past Beck’s bedtime.”
“What are you going to do with the bracelet?” Susan looked at her cautiously.
Jewel gazed at the silver and turquoise as it caught the kitchen light, the metal now warm from her hand. “I don’t know yet.”
They all drove back to Cole’s house in her car.
The ride was quiet except for Beckett’s chatter from the back seat about the games he’d played with Della, how Uncle Conrad had let him help with the dishes, and whether they could go back tomorrow.
Through the windshield, the headlights carved a tunnel through the darkness, with pine trees pressing close on either side of the road.
Cole responded with appropriate sounds and brief answers, but Jewel could sense the tension radiating from him in waves.
By the time they pulled into his driveway, complete darkness had fallen. The temperature had dropped significantly, and she could see her breath in the cool night air as they got out of the car.
Cole carried a sleepy Beckett inside while she followed, the bracelet now tucked into her jacket pocket.
It felt like it was burning a hole through the fabric, impossible to ignore.
The house smelled like the cedar logs Cole had burned in the fireplace that morning, the scent still lingering in the entryway.
“Bath time, buddy.” His tone was deliberately cheerful.
“Can Jewel help?”
“Sure, if she wants to.”
She did want to, because it was easier than being alone with her thoughts.
After the bath, she helped Beckett get into his pajamas, the little boy’s damp hair smelling of the lavender shampoo they used.
She listened to his excited rambling about all the things he wanted to show Della tomorrow.
Then she read him two chapters from his favorite book about horses, her voice naturally finding the story’s rhythm while her mind spun in circles.
By the time she tucked him in and closed his bedroom door with a gentle click, she felt exhausted.
Cole was waiting for her in the living room, his expression guarded. Around them, the house creaked as it settled into the night. “Want some coffee? Or something stronger?”
“Coffee’s fine.”
They moved quietly to the kitchen, their footsteps soft on the hardwood floors.
He started the coffee maker, the familiar gurgle and hiss filling the silence, while she sat at the counter, pulling the bracelet from her pocket and placing it on the smooth surface between them.
The overhead light made the turquoise stones appear almost luminous.
It looked so innocent sitting there. Just a piece of jewelry. Attractive, but not especially notable.
Except for where she’d found it.
He placed a mug in front of her and then took a seat at the counter. The ceramic felt warm against her cold fingers, and she watched as his eyes drifted to the bracelet, then away again, as if he couldn’t bear to look at it.
Finally, his gaze shifted to her. “I know how this looks. I know it looks bad for me.”
She held her hands tightly around the warm mug, needing something to grasp. “Yeah. It does.”
“I swear to you, Jewel, I don’t know anything about it. I didn’t hide it, and I have no idea how it got into my office. You have to believe me.” His voice was rough with emotion.
Did she believe him?
She wanted to. God, how she wanted to.
But the evidence against him was piling up, piece by piece, each one harder to dismiss than the last. He’d known about Trevor but kept it a secret. He’d fought with Vivian over the affair. They’d argued about Beckett. And now, her bracelet—a piece she wore regularly—was hidden in his barn.
She waited, watching him and giving him time to break the silence. Outside, something rustled in the bushes, probably a raccoon or opossum. If he were going to suggest someone had planted it, try to shift the blame, now would be the time.
But he didn’t. He simply sat there, appearing defeated and confused, with his fingers clutching his coffee mug as if it were the only stable thing in his world.
Finally, she spoke. “I don’t know what to believe.”
Something in his expression crumbled. “I can’t blame you for that.”
Her mind went back to this afternoon. To the car that Cole said had followed her.
Was it real? Or had he made it up, trying to make her feel vulnerable, trying to make her think she needed his protection?
But she’d also seen a car. And if someone had been following her, was it related to this?
To the bracelet showing up in his barn office?
Or were they completely separate things? What was real, what was fabricated, and what was just imagined?
For now, she kept her thoughts to herself, watching him across the table, trying to read the truth in the lines of his face, in the shadows under his eyes.
Exhausted, she pushed back her mug. “I should go to bed. It’s late.”
“Jewel—”
“I need time to think, Cole. About all of this.” She gestured vaguely, indicating the bracelet, the barn, and everything that had happened since she’d arrived in Otter Creek. “I just…need time.”
He nodded, looking defeated. “Okay. Yeah. Of course.”
She left him sitting at the counter, the bracelet still resting there like an accusation, and moved through the kitchen to the guest room. The floor creaked beneath her, echoing loudly in the silent house.
But once she lay down in her bed, sleep didn’t come easily.
Through the open window, she could hear the distant sound of wind moving through the pines and the faint call of the owl as she lay in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, her mind replaying every conversation, every moment, every piece of evidence.
The bracelet. The hidden board. Conrad in the office all morning but seeing nothing.
The car that might or might not have been following her. Was it just a convenient story to make her feel unsafe, or was it a real threat?
Cole’s shock when he saw the bracelet, the way the color drained from his face. Was it real? Or fake?
At least he hadn’t suggested that someone planted it. That was something. If he were guilty and looking for an excuse, wouldn’t that be the obvious play?
Then again, maybe he was smarter than that. Maybe he knew suggesting it himself would seem suspicious.
She thought of Susan’s upcoming surgery in three days, and the promise she’d made to stay.
She thought about Beckett’s sweet face, his trust in her, and his need for stability.
And she thought of Cole. Always Cole. The way he looked at her, the way he’d kissed her, and the way her body responded to him despite every logical reason to stay away.
She rolled over, punching her pillow in frustration.
Tomorrow, she’d be able to think more clearly. Tomorrow, she’d figure out what to do next.
But tonight, she only had questions and a deep, gnawing uncertainty that kept her awake well into the night.
Somewhere in the house, a floorboard creaked with the distinctive groan of old wood.
She held her breath, listening. The sound of her own heartbeat filled her ears.
Another creak. Closer this time.
Then nothing. Just the wind in the trees outside, the distant hoot of an owl, and the usual sounds of a house at night.