You Took My Luggage, I Took Everything

“Miss, I think you might have the wrong suitcase.” “How could I be wrong about my own suitcase?” “Because this one,” he said, “is mine.” “Yours? Does it have your name on it? Who saw you with it?” At the airport’s baggage claim, a fragile, tearful voice clung to a sakura-pink suitcase, refusing to let go. Beside her, a man stood like a bodyguard, shielding her as he shot a dismissive glare at the suitcase’s true owner. A sharp throb pulsed in Sophia’s temples. This business trip was turning into a complete nightmare. The carousel whirred, a monotonous drone in the chaotic, bustling arrivals hall. She had spotted her suitcase instantly. The sakura-pink one. She’d had a designer friend in Italy custom-make it; it was the only one of its kind in the world. The shell was a special material, the color a unique shade of pink perfected after a dozen different dye tests. She strode over, reaching to lift it off the belt. But another hand, pale and slender, was faster. A girl in a white dress, her makeup flawless, snatched the suitcase first. She looked to be in her early twenties, with long hair cascading over her shoulders and a face of pure innocence. Sophia paused. “Excuse me, miss,” she said politely. “I’m sorry, but that’s my suitcase.” The girl looked up, her large eyes blinking in feigned confusion. “Yours? That’s impossible. I just bought this.” Her voice was syrupy sweet, laced with a hint of grievance, as if Sophia were the one making an unreasonable scene. Sophia took a deep breath, fighting to keep her patience. She pointed to the side of the case. “This suitcase is a custom piece. It has my initials, S.R., engraved on it.” Hearing this, the girl immediately hugged the suitcase tighter, turning it away. “Where? I don’t see anything. Are you trying to pull a fast one?” Just then, a tall figure stepped between them. The man was decked out in designer streetwear, his hair slicked back with gel. He looked down at Sophia with condescending eyes. “What do you think you’re doing? Trying to rob someone in broad daylight?” His name was Aiden, and he was the girl’s, Lily’s, boyfriend. Lily immediately ducked behind him, peering out with reddened eyes. “Aiden, she’s so aggressive. She keeps insisting my suitcase is hers.” Aiden wrapped a protective arm around his girlfriend, his glare at Sophia turning hostile. “Ma’am, you look presentable enough. Why would you stoop to something like this? I bought this suitcase for my girlfriend. You must be mistaken.” Sophia almost laughed out loud. Since when were thieves so brazen? Her patience was wearing thin. The contents of that suitcase were a thousand times more valuable than the case itself. If anything happened to them, it was a loss she couldn’t afford. “I’ll say this one more time,” Sophia enunciated each word, her voice turning cold. “That suitcase is mine. I don’t have time to waste with you.” Aiden scoffed. “Oh, putting on a show now? You just saw my girlfriend’s suitcase is a limited edition and you want it for yourself, don’t you?” He looked her up and down. “I’ve seen your type before. Not a single designer label on you, but you’re desperate to latch onto a rich guy. Too bad you picked the wrong target.” From behind him, Lily chimed in softly, “That’s right, Aiden. You had to pull so many strings to get this for me. I absolutely adore it.” Their performance was seamless. The commotion had started to draw a crowd of other travelers, who stopped to watch. The murmurs were quiet but clear enough. “That young girl doesn’t look like a liar. Maybe the other woman really is mistaken?” “You never know. There are so many gold diggers these days. She probably saw the guy was rich and tried to make a move.” Sophia’s expression darkened completely. She hadn’t wanted to make a scene, but it was clear that a simple request wasn’t going to work. These two had mistaken her for a pushover. “Fine. You say it’s yours, right?” Sophia suddenly became calm, a faint smile even touching her lips. Aiden and Lily exchanged a smug glance, assuming she was about to give up. “Of course it’s ours!” Aiden said, his chin held high. “Alright,” Sophia nodded, then pulled out her phone. “Then let’s call the police. Or we can get airport security over here and let them sort it out.” “Let’s see just who this one-of-a-kind suitcase really belongs to.”

2 At the word “police,” a flicker of panic crossed Lily’s eyes. But Aiden remained unfazed. “Go ahead! Who’s scared? We’ve got nothing to hide!” he boomed, playing the part of the righteous victim, his loud voice attracting even more attention. Seeing his confidence, Lily straightened up, clutching his arm and whining, “Aiden, how could she? We were trying to be nice, and now she wants to call the police? She’s slandering us!” Such acting talent was wasted outside of Hollywood. Sophia scoffed internally. Fine. They wanted to play dumb until the bitter end. She dialed the airport information desk and concisely explained the situation. In less than three minutes, two uniformed security officers arrived. “What’s going on here?” one of them asked sternly. Aiden immediately jumped in, twisting the story. “Officers, thank God you’re here! This woman is claiming my girlfriend’s suitcase is hers, and she even tried to snatch it!” He pointed an accusatory finger at Sophia. “We felt sorry for her, a woman all alone, and tried to reason with her, but she threatened to call the police. It’s unbelievable!” On cue, Lily squeezed out a few tears, sobbing, “This suitcase… it was my favorite birthday present. I really can’t lose it…” She cried beautifully, a picture of fragile misery. The tide of public opinion immediately turned against Sophia. “Oh my God, that woman is such a bully.” “Yeah, picking on a poor young couple.” “Look, the girl is about to faint from crying.” The security officer frowned and turned to Sophia. “Miss, do you have any proof that this suitcase belongs to you?” Sophia met the crowd’s judgment without flinching. She looked calmly at the officer. “I do.” She pointed to a nearly invisible spot where the handle connected to the case. “First, this suitcase is custom-made. Three centimeters below the handle, there are laser-engraved initials, ‘SR.’ You can’t see them unless you look very closely.” “Second,” she continued, “one of the spinner wheels was scuffed on my last trip. There’s a scratch, about half a centimeter long, on the inner side of the wheel.” “And third, most importantly, I was in a hurry, so I filled out the luggage tag by hand. It doesn’t have my name on it, but an address and the words ‘For Mr. Lancaster’s Personal Attention.’ I tucked the tag into the side mesh pocket.” She laid out the facts, one by one, her voice clear and steady. With every point she made, the color drained a little more from Aiden and Lily’s faces. They didn’t know a single one of the details Sophia had just described. Aiden stubbornly puffed out his chest. “How do we know you’re not just making that up? Maybe you were following us the whole time, eavesdropping!” Sophia looked at him as if he were an idiot. “I was following you? All the way from the design studio in Italy to here?” The security officer was clearly more convinced by Sophia. He stepped forward and addressed Lily. “Miss, could you please hand over the suitcase for inspection?” Lily clutched the case for dear life. “No! This is my suitcase! You can’t touch it!” Her reaction said it all. The officer’s expression hardened, his tone becoming severe. “Miss, I need you to cooperate with our investigation. Otherwise, we will have to involve the police.” At the mention of police intervention, Lily’s body trembled. Aiden, seeing her fear, pulled her behind him. “Check it, then! What’s the big deal? Let’s see what you have to say after you’ve checked it!” He seemed to believe that as long as they kept denying it, no one could do anything to them. The officer took the suitcase and first inspected the handle. After a moment of feeling around the area, he found it. Two subtle, raised forms in the hidden corner. “There are initials here,” he confirmed. He then crouched down to inspect the wheels. “And there is indeed a scratch right here.” Finally, from the side mesh pocket, he pulled out a handwritten luggage tag. The writing on it matched Sophia’s description exactly. The truth was out. The crowd’s murmurs instantly shifted direction. “So they were the thieves all along!” “Wow, those two have some nerve!” “How pathetic, pretending to be the victims.” Aiden and Lily’s faces cycled through shades of red and white, as if they had been slapped repeatedly. Lily, who had been weeping so dramatically just moments before, was now deathly pale.

3 “Now,” Sophia’s voice was quiet, but it landed like a hammer blow on the couple’s hearts. “May I have my suitcase back?” Aiden’s pride was shattered. He snarled, a cornered animal trying to look tough. “So what if the details match! It could be a coincidence! If you’re so sure, why don’t you open it?” He was betting she wouldn’t. After all, who would share their luggage combination with strangers? As long as she couldn’t open it, they still had room to argue. Lily, grasping at this last straw, quickly chimed in. “Yeah! Open it! If you can open it, then I’ll admit the suitcase is yours!” She was certain Sophia couldn’t possibly know the combination to the notoriously complex lock. Sophia looked at their pathetic, last-ditch effort and found it almost laughable. “Open it?” she raised an eyebrow. “Alright.” She walked to the suitcase, not even glancing at the combination dials. Instead, she pressed her finger lightly onto a tiny, unassuming square next to the lock. It was a fingerprint scanner. This custom case used the latest biometric security. Only a person with a registered fingerprint could open it. A soft beep. Then, to the astonishment of everyone watching, the latch sprang open with a sharp click. The world went silent. The air in the terminal seemed to freeze. Aiden and Lily’s eyes bulged, their mouths hanging open wide enough to fit an egg. The expressions on their faces morphed from arrogance to disbelief, then to horror, and finally settled into a mask of ashen despair. This was more humiliating than a physical slap. The crowd of onlookers erupted in a wave of laughter and derisive jeers. “Hahaha, talk about a public takedown!” “She told her to open it, and all it took was one finger. Classic!” “How embarrassing! What a total train wreck!” The security officers just shook their heads, looking at the pair as if they were fools. “Well, folks,” one of them said, turning to the couple. “Do you have anything else to say? Please come with us.” Lily’s knees gave out, and she nearly collapsed. Aiden was in a full-blown panic. He wanted to reach for Sophia, to beg for mercy. But Sophia wasn’t even looking at them. She knelt and gently lifted the lid of the suitcase. When the contents were revealed, the noisy crowd fell instantly, deathly silent. A collective gasp rippled through the onlookers. The moment Sophia’s eyes landed on the single, hairline fracture marring the perfection of her work, her blood ran cold. The world around her faded into a dull roar. The gasps of the crowd, the panicked whimpers of the couple, the stern voices of the security guards—it was all just noise. All she could see was that tiny, devastating crack on the castle’s tallest spire. It was a whisper of a flaw, almost invisible to the untrained eye. But to her, it screamed of violation. Of carelessness. Of destruction. Her heart, which had been pounding with adrenaline and anger, now felt like a leaden weight in her chest. She slowly, deliberately, closed the lid, the soft click of the latch echoing in the sudden silence. She rose to her feet, her face a mask of cold fury, and leveled a gaze at the two people who had caused this. They were still frozen, their faces pale with shock and dawning horror. Sophia’s voice, when she finally spoke, was quiet, devoid of all emotion, which made it all the more terrifying. “You’re finished.”