Chapter 2 - The Bracelet
I opened the velvet pouch.
Inside was Chloe’s diamond bracelet.
Julian stared at it.
“I thought you lost that yesterday.”
Chloe swallowed.
“I did.”
“No,” I said.
“She hid it inside her purse.”
Chloe laughed bitterly.
“Listen to yourself.”
I turned toward Julian.
“When I was dressed as the housekeeper, she accused me of stealing this bracelet.”
Julian’s brow tightened.
“She called security?”
“She threatened to.”
Chloe stepped between us.
“Because I couldn’t find it.”
“You had already found it,” I said.
I removed my phone.
“I photographed it before you moved it.”
The image showed the bracelet partially buried beneath a silk scarf inside Chloe’s handbag.
The timestamp was visible.
Eleven seventeen that morning.
Her accusation had come almost forty minutes later.
Julian looked sick.
“Why would you do that?”
Chloe’s expression changed.
The anger disappeared.
Tears appeared instead.
Perfectly timed.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it.”
“I was testing her.”
I nearly laughed.
Julian didn’t.
“Testing the housekeeper?”
“Yes.”
Chloe grabbed his hand.
“Things have been disappearing.”
“No, they haven’t,” I said.
Chloe turned sharply.
“You don’t know everything happening in this house.”
Actually, I did.
The house belonged to me.
Elena managed every inventory report.
Nothing valuable had disappeared in seven years.
Julian slowly removed his hand from Chloe’s.
That frightened her.
She stepped closer.
“Julian, please.”
“I’m under unbelievable pressure.”
“The wedding.”
“The press.”
“Your mother.”
“My mother?”
Her eyes moved toward me.
There it was.
The first mistake she could not take back.
“She has never wanted me here.”
“That isn’t true,” Julian said.
“Isn’t it?”
Chloe wiped her cheek.
“She interviewed your staff behind your back.”
“She dressed like a servant to humiliate me.”
“She secretly recorded me.”
“Does that sound normal?”
Julian looked at me.
For one painful moment, I saw doubt.
Chloe saw it too.
She moved immediately.
“You told me your mother controls everything.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
“I never said that.”
Chloe froze.
I watched her carefully.
Neither of us had noticed the footsteps behind us.
Elena had returned early from the staff seminar.
And from the look on her face, she had heard everything.
She stepped into the foyer.
“Mr. Julian.”
Her hands were shaking.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Chloe whispered, “Elena, don’t.”
Elena looked directly at my son.
May you like
“She didn’t do this for the first time today.”
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