Chapter 3

"It's just a little family squabble. We'll be out of your hair right now! Sorry for the trouble!"

Faced with the patrol officers, Vivian’s previous arrogance evaporated the second she spoke.

She yanked hard on Chloe's arm, trying to pull her into the crowd of onlookers and slip away before the cops could ask any real questions.

"Who do you think is leaving?"

It was Cousin Mark—an idiot who knew nothing about the truth and only cared about securing his cut of the inheritance.

Mark strode forward and bellowed, "Officers, this is no simple family dispute! This woman stole money from our recently deceased grandmother to buy a half-million-dollar luxury car! We're here to collect what's ours. This is an absolute felony!"

The tall officer's demeanor hardened instantly. "A half-million-dollar theft? Ma'am, is this true?"

Vivian glared daggers at Mark.

Before she could piece together an excuse, Nathan eagerly stepped up.

"Officer, it's not what they're saying." Nathan stepped forward and clamped his hand tightly around my wrist.

"My fiancée's mental state has been extremely unstable lately. She has a habit of projecting her own behavior onto others—"

"Get off me!" I violently shook off his hand. "The police are right here! A quick investigation will make it crystal clear who actually stole the money!"

I stepped directly toward the two officers. "Officers, my cousin embezzled the money from my grandmother's trust fund and framed me for it. Just pull the footage, and you can close this case right now."

The officer nodded, his sharp gaze cutting to Vivian. "If there's footage, I need you to provide it immediately."

Vivian started stammering, "Officer, we deleted the video entirely to protect Audrey's reputation! When she snuck in to steal the cash... she was completely naked!"

Right on cue, Chloe let out a perfectly timed sigh, buried her face in her hands, and began to sob.

I stared coldly at them. "Are you absolutely sure the naked person in that video was me?"

"O-of course it was you."

"Perfect."

While Nathan was still desperately attempting to spin his web of lies to the officers, I retrieved my phone from where it had been kicked across the pavement earlier.

I tapped into my photo gallery, cranked the media volume to the max, and held the screen up high for the officers and the entire crowd to see.

"Since everyone is here, let's all take a look and see exactly who snuck into that room stark naked to steal the cash and bank cards."

Even through the cracked glass covering my screen, the footage was undeniably crisp: a naked woman tiptoed into the study, expertly unlocked the safe hidden in the bookshelf, and emptied its contents. Then, she turned her head, clearly revealing Chloe's panicked face in the camera's frame.

"Holy shit, the actual thief is the one playing the victim!"

"Weren't they just swearing up and down they deleted it to protect the cousin's reputation?"

"That is absolutely shameless!"

Experiencing the humiliation of public condemnation for the very first time in her life, Chloe's face burned crimson. She opened her mouth to argue, but couldn't force out a single word.

But Vivian was still fighting a losing battle. She lunged toward the officers, shrieking, "It was Audrey who forced her to do it! My daughter doesn't even have a driver's license, how could she go buy a Porsche? Audrey must have physically threatened her to steal it!"

This totally illogical, unhinged rant only earned a deeply impatient gesture from the cop.

Fifteen minutes later, the police cruisers hauled us all down to the downtown precinct.

Outside the interrogation room, Faced with the detective, Nathan was still tirelessly dragging my name through the mud.

"Sir, she has a long, documented history of bullying. This time, she absolutely coerced Chloe into taking the risk so she could buy that car."

I ground my teeth. "Nathan, didn't I warn you to stay the hell out of my business?"

"But I can't just stand by and watch you go down the wrong path! Everything I'm doing is trying to help you!"

Trying to help me? In my past life, I had trusted his so-called "good intentions" far too much, backing down time and time again, only to end up crushed under his tires.

Ignoring the flock of relatives murmuring in agreement with Nathan, I marched straight up to the detective.

"Detective, have you pulled my grandmother's bank statements yet? Wherever that half a million dollars went should prove exactly who the real thief is, right?"

The chatter in the room instantly died down.

The detective looked up from a thick case file, eyeing me with an incredibly complicated expression.

"The bank paper trail is indeed crystal clear," the detective said, enunciating every word. "That five hundred thousand dollars was wired directly into the corporate account of a luxury auto dealership. And the Porsche purchased with those funds—"

He pulled out a photocopy of a DMV registration form.

"—is registered entirely under your name. Ms. Audrey."

The air in the room dropped to absolute zero.