Chapter 6 - The True Value
"Now," the grandfather says, his voice cutting through the rising whispers.
"Let's see what my granddaughter supposedly took from this room."
He walks to the collapsed wooden frame, reaching into the ruined velvet lining.
He pulls out a small, crumpled drawing.
It is a piece of cheap white printer paper, folded into four crooked squares.
On it, drawn in bright yellow and pink crayon, are three simple stick figures holding hands under a large, lopsided sun.
The bottom edge is torn where a adult's hand had ripped it from the child's ribbon.
The grandfather smoothes the paper against his knee with great care.
He turns to the man shivering in the dirt.
"She took this out of her pocket to show her mother," the old man says, his eyes dark as winter water.
"You tore it because you thought it was a receipt for your fake watch."
He steps back toward his daughter and granddaughter.
He takes the toddler’s small, dirt-smudged hand in his own large palm.
"Call the police, Arthur," the grandfather orders his bodyguard standing by the door.
"Tell them we have a man trying to extort my family with fake jewels."
He looks back down at the toddler, a faint, rare smile breaking across his stern face.
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"Come, Little Bird," he whispers softly, kissing her tiny forehead.
"Let's go draw a bigger sun."
