When I stepped outside, I found Grandma standing at the door of Eleanor's room.
Eleanor had a hard grip on my grandmother's arm.
"Please, ma'am, I'm begging you, give me back the gold necklace. I'll pay for it, I don't care. That necklace was my mother's. It's all I have left of her."
Eleanor's voice pulled a crowd of coworkers over to gawk. Someone asked what was going on.
Eleanor's eyes were rimmed red as she said,
"I just got back to my room and found the gold necklace my mother left me is gone. I checked the security footage—this afternoon the only person who snuck into my room was this old woman."
Grandma tried to explain, flustered.
"I was only passing by her door. It was open, and I saw the gas burner still lit inside, so I went in to turn it off for her. I didn't take a single thing of hers."
Someone shoved forward and pushed my grandmother away.
"You old thief, I knew you were up to no good. Hanging around outside our rooms every single day, just waiting for your chance to sneak in and steal."
"That necklace was Eleanor's mother's keepsake. Aren't you afraid her mother's ghost will come for you in the middle of the night?"
"Hand the necklace over. Now. Next time we catch you stealing, we're calling the police."
Grandma was so frantic she didn't know what to do with her hands, and the tears started coming.
"I really didn't steal anything. I only turned off her gas for her."
Eleanor wasn't a careless person. There was no way she'd leave for work with her door open and the gas still burning. She'd done it on purpose.
I moved quickly and put myself between them, in front of my grandmother.
"What proof do you have that my grandmother stole anything?"
A coworker gave a cold snort.
"She was the only one alone in the building, and she went sneaking into Eleanor's room. Who else could it be?"
"I said it from the start—you shouldn't have been allowed to bring shady people in here. And look now, they're stealing from us. Everybody better go back and check whether anything of yours is missing."
Grandma clutched my hand, explaining helplessly.
"Pauline, I really didn't take anything."
I patted her arm to calm her and turned to Eleanor.
"Eleanor, where did you keep your gold necklace?"
Eleanor answered like it was obvious.
"I keep it in my vanity drawer. Nobody's been in my room except your grandmother."
I nodded and took out my phone.
"Fine. In that case, I'll call the police. My grandmother says she only turned off your gas and didn't touch anything else. Let the officers lift the prints around your vanity drawer, and we'll know for sure whether she touched your things."
Eleanor's face shifted, and she snatched the phone out of my hand.
"Forget it, Pauline. It's a small thing. No need to call the police over this."
I looked at her coldly.
"My grandmother helped you out of kindness and got branded a thief for it. If we're going to look into this, let's look into it properly."
Glen came over too.
"Pauline, can you not stir up trouble every single day? Bad enough you broke the rules bringing someone in to live in the employee housing. Now you're calling the police? Do you think you haven't humiliated us enough? You've made me lose all face."
My hands curled into fists before I could stop them. Eleanor smeared my grandmother, and while the old woman was being ganged up on, Glen was nowhere to be seen. Now that he heard me mention the police, he didn't even ask a single question before turning on me for costing him face.
I looked at Glen's familiar face and felt like I was looking at a stranger.
I turned to Eleanor and pressed her.
"Did you actually see my grandmother take your necklace?"
Seeing how serious I was, Eleanor started to panic.
"Oh—maybe I've just been too busy lately and put it somewhere else. Let's just drop it."
I fixed a cold stare on her.
