Sapphire (Book One, Arrow)

chapter 11 ⚔ Trust But Verify

I had met up at the Queen mansion, seeing that Thea was sitting in an armchair, looking at a tablet.

Oliver was standing at a table behind her.

I walked toward them.

"Tahitian green or midnight black?" Thea asked. "What do you think?"

"I think that you've been dropping hints all week, Thea, and Mom still isn't buying you a car for your birthday," Oliver answered.

Moira walked in. "I could not have said it better myself."

"Oliver got a car when he turned 18," Thea told us.

"Yeah, but I could back it out of the driveway without hitting a tree," Oliver told her. 

"That's true," Thea told him. "But I do remember you taking the paint off the side of Dad's Maserati."

Moira turned to me. "Oh, Jillian, it's been a while since we've seen you around here, and that's strange, considering that you've taken up residence in the guest room."

"I wanted to give you guys some space," I told her. "I didn't want to be intrusive."

"Nonsense," Moira told me. "I decided to let you stay until you get back on your feet, and that includes giving you a place to go home to even in the most difficult of circumstances."

"Yeah, well, that will be easier once the club really starts going," I told them.

Moira smiled a small smile. "Thea, the party planner's waiting. Sorry to run off like this."

Moira kissed me on the cheek.

Thea stood, walking closer. "Don't we have a convertible to go buy?"

I smiled a small smile. "Good luck." Moira and Thea walked out, leaving. I looked at Oliver, walking closer. "How's she holding up?"

"Oh, she's okay," Oliver answered. I walked past him to the breakfast food laid out on the table behind him, picking up an apple, taking a bite. Oliver turned to face me. "Thea thinks she's actually a little bit too okay."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Just... behaving erratically," Oliver answered. "Shut-in one minute, running the company the next."

"Well, her husband is missing and presumed who-knows-what," I told him. "If anyone had an excuse to be erratic, it's your mom."

I picked up a cherry, taking a bite.

Oliver was watching the news. "That's what I told Thea."

I turned to see the news.

There was an interview with Lance.

"He's too busy to comment."

"The department has got the same comment about this heist as it did the other two," Lance told them. "No comment."

A reporter looked into the camera. "The SCPD may not be willing to go on the record, but traffic cameras got the entire heist in this exclusive." 

There was a video clip of a heist robbing an armored truck in the middle of the night.

"Shortly after 1:00 AM, three masked robbers approached the armored vehicle after launching what appears to be..."

"That's why you keep all your money offshore," Oliver told me. 

"One of the guards was pronounced dead on the scene, while the other died en route to Starling General. Their identities have not yet been released."