Chapter 18: The Case of the Mystery Earrings
Moana

I finished preparing lunch with the maids and helped them to set the meal out on the dining room table. Although I had already eaten a quick meal in the kitchen earlier as we prepared the food, it was still my duty as Ella’s nanny to stay with her and help her if she needed anything. Besides, the grumpy look on Ella’s face whenever Kelly was around only softened when I was near her, which made me want to be near her even more as support.

I sat beside Ella for the duration of the lunch, helping her to cut her food, keep her clothes clean, and get her whatever she needed. Edrick, Verona, and Kelly spoke with each other about trivial things as though I wasn’t even there, which was fine with me. If they had tried to involve me in their conversation, I likely wouldn’t have known the right things to say. I’d never dealt with such wealthy people in my life, let alone tried to have meaningful conversation with them.

Not being personally involved in the conversation also allowed me to be more observant — and one thing that I observed was that Kelly was being much more quiet and reserved now than she had been before. She absentmindedly picked at her salad with her fork, hardly eating anything at all.

“Pour me some more tea, would you?” Kelly said suddenly, shooting me a look out of the corner of her eyes.

“Right away,” I said, standing and walking around the table to pick up the teapot. I noticed that Kelly kept her eyes intensely focused on me the entire time as I walked back to pour her tea, but I pretended that I didn’t see it.

Kelly was silent for a moment as I poured her tea. I felt her gaze focused on the side of my head, burning furiously.

When I sat down, Kelly took a sip of her tea before speaking again, this time looking at Edrick.

room earlier, Edrick?” she

raised an eyebrow.

side table,” she said. “I’m assuming they

out a small gasp

I had put my earrings in that morning. As a knot formed in my stomach, I glanced down at my own tea to see in my reflection that I had not, in fact, put

my stomach sick. “I’m not sure.

head to look up at me, but

that Kelly would call Edrick out on his bluff and expose our unexplainable sleeping arrangement.

moments of silence, turning toward him in her seat. “Do you remember when we were kids, and we used

do remember,” Edrick replied, almost absentmindedly, as he

“I’m sure you misbehave all of the time for your trainers, don’t you?” she said,

my training,” she said, her little voice flat

a slight hmph, Kelly returned to picking at her

feel guilty for my arrangement with Edrick after hearing about how he and his childhood sweetheart used to act together. It felt wrong of me to be participating in this agreement if

about Edrick’s escapades with

lunch, Verona and Kelly stayed for a while. Ella seemed to get sleepy — although I suspected that she just wanted an excuse to be alone — so I took her to her room. When I finished tucking her in for her nap, I returned to the foyer to see Verona and Kelly preparing to leave. Verona and Edrick were talking quietly about something that seemed important, so I turned away to go to the

gaze on me as I tentatively walked up to Edrick’s mother. Verona, much unlike Kelly,

Morgan,” I said politely as I approached. “And you as well,

open her mouth to say something, but Verona spoke before

Verona said. “It seems he’s forgotten… Or, he just thought he could get out of going this

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