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"April Faith? I have a special envelope for you. I need a signature," he said in a husky voice.
"Oh, alright," she said, opening the door wider.
As she signed the paper on the clipboard he handed over, April asked, "Who is it from?"
"I just deliver it. I don't know," he replied in a monotone and rehearsed tone, as if he'd been asked a hundred times already.
April nodded and took the envelope from him. She closed the door, feeling a sense of curiosity and excitement wash over her. She had never received a package like this before.
She tore the envelope open and pulled out a letter, her eyes skimming over the words as she read.
As she reached the end, she felt a knot form in her stomach.
Please be advised that your property is on watch by the city council due to a new regulation that will be put into law tomorrow, the sixteenth.
New regulation 12.367 in section B states that no homeowners will be allowed to house any animals, even those referred to as pets, on the island that can be at any time referred to as livestock or pack animals.
Her heart sank in her chest. Was this truly happening? Isaac had found a way to bother her even further by making it law that she couldn't ever have horses in her ranch?
It was just another way to push her to her limits. He wanted to irritate her and it was working, almost too well. Of course, this would make her miserable. He knew that this was her dream, no matter how many times she tried to convince the town otherwise.
And what was the beginning of the letter? Some kind of warning that they were watching her? It had to be considered a threat. April wasn't sure what else she could call it.
Isaac wanted her to know that he would be watching very carefully for the one moment she stepped out of line.
She had to be more careful than ever, which made her anxious. Her heart raced in her chest.
April took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She couldn't let Isaac's petty actions get the best of her. She had worked too hard to let him ruin everything she had built.
She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. But less than a second later, her phone buzzed in her pocket. The paper crinkled in her hands as she jumped at the noise.
"Oh, gosh," April exclaimed aloud. "It's just a phone, April. Try to relax."
Rolling her eyes at herself, she pulled out her phone and pressed answer. "Hello, this is April Faith."
"Hi, April," a familiar voice responded. "It's the Millers, we stayed at your property just this past week."
It was the woman from the adorable couple who'd stayed. They were so kind to her throughout their stay. And then she wondered for a while if they were the ones who stole from her. Of course, that was quickly washed away when she suspected her father.
"Of course! What can I help you with? I hope you didn't have any trouble."
"No, no, definitely no trouble. But we did notice that I'm missing my favorite pair of earrings. They were these little pearls that I'd set out on the nightstand." She sighed on the other end of the line. "He thinks I've misplaced them, but I specifically remember setting them in my bag on the nightstand during our stay."
"Oh, no," April replied. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen them, but if you give me just one moment, I can go check the room for you."
"Sure," the woman said before April put the call on mute and set the phone down on the desk.
April quickly walked back to the room they stayed in. She searched high and low for the pair of earrings, but turned up with nothing. She thought she would have seen the pair of nice earrings before. After all, she'd done a thorough search for her jewelry box when it ended up missing from the same room.
When she got back downstairs, she was slightly winded from turning the room upside down. "Yeah, I'm sorry, but I didn't find anything. Are you sure it didn't get lost in that bag? Or maybe you just misplaced it and it's somewhere else?"
"No, I've emptied the bag completely. All of our bags, in fact." The woman sounded disappointed, rightfully so. April felt horrible for her. She knew what it felt like to have things go missing. "And I specifically remember putting them in the bag."
April now looked around the desk. Maybe someone had turned them in, and Millie hadn't told her yet. "I'm sure we'll find them. They have to be somewhere," she tried reassuring the woman.
"Maybe your helper saw it? She said she was going to restock our room the day before we left. Could you ask her if she happened to see it anywhere? That might be able to tell us when it went missing."
And April put all the pieces together. She never asked Millie to check on guests in the middle of their stay. They had been stocking the rooms with enough that the guests wouldn't need anything else while there.
