The Waitress Gave Her Last $10 to a Lost Old Man. His Billionaire Son Came Looking for Her.

Nobody had mentioned her to Jenna. Not once.

"It's a business arrangement as much as anything," Luke told Jenna the next morning, unable to meet her eyes. "Her father controls the board vote. If I want to keep my father's company safe from people who'd sell it off, I need him on my side. I've known Brielle since college. I thought…" He stopped. "I thought that was enough. Before."

"Before what?" Jenna asked.

Luke didn't answer.

Brielle was perfectly polite to Jenna for exactly one week.

Then the money started disappearing.

First, three hundred dollars from the household cash box in the kitchen. Then a gold pocket watch from Arthur's dresser. Then, on a Friday, four thousand dollars was withdrawn from Arthur's personal bank account, in cash, from an ATM in Jenna's old neighborhood on Kenmore Avenue.

The head of household security showed Luke the ATM camera footage. A woman in a gray hoodie with the hood up. You couldn't see her face. But she was Jenna's height. Jenna's build.

And she was wearing Jenna's sweater. The blue one she'd wrapped around Arthur's foot at the Lakeview.

Luke called her into his study.

Brielle was already there, standing by the window with her arms crossed.

"Jenna," Luke said quietly, "I need you to tell me the truth."

"I didn't take anything."

"The cash box. The watch. Four thousand dollars from my father's account. From an ATM four blocks from your old apartment. In your sweater."

"Someone took my sweater from my room on Tuesday. I told the housekeeper—"

"She said you never mentioned it," said Brielle softly.

Jenna turned to Luke.

"You know me," she said. "You know me."

Luke looked at her for a long time. His face was tired and gray. He'd been fooled before. Jenna could see it in his eyes, the way he'd learned not to trust anyone who got close.

"I thought I did," he said.

Something inside Jenna broke.

"Your brother's surgery is still scheduled," Luke said, very quietly. "That's not his fault, and I won't take it away from him. But I need you to pack your things and leave by tonight."

Arthur didn't understand.

When Jenna came to say goodbye, he was in his chair by the library window. He took both her hands.

"Where are you going, dear? Eileen will be here any minute. She wants to meet you."

"I have to go, Arthur," Jenna whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Arthur looked up at her. For one moment, his blue eyes went perfectly clear.

"Somebody's been in my room at night," he said. "The tall girl. With the ring." He frowned. "She takes things. I told Luke. He said I was confused."

Jenna stared at him.

Then the clarity faded, and he patted her hand and said, "Tell Eileen I saved her the good chair."

That night, Jenna and Tommy moved back into the apartment on Kenmore Avenue.

The heat didn't work. Tommy coughed all night. Jenna lay awake on the couch thinking about Arthur saying the tall girl with the ring.

At 5 a.m., her phone rang. It was the night nurse at the Pierce house, in a panic.

"Miss Price? Is Mr. Arthur with you?"

Jenna sat straight up. "What?"

"He's gone. He's not in his room. The front door was open. It's eleven degrees outside and he's in his pajamas, and he keeps… he kept saying all night he had to go find Jenna."