Chapter 2

I folded the paper carefully and slipped it into my inner coat pocket.

The edges were neatly trimmed, as if cut in advance, specifically waiting to be planted in Lily’s pocket.

The text was printed, leaving no handwriting that could trace back to anyone.

A piece of paper like this proved nothing—it could even easily be dismissed as a stunt I cooked up to clear my daughter's name.

Yet its appearance proved at least one thing.

Lily hadn't stolen the necklace. Someone was terrified of her talking.

When the door to the breakroom was pushed open, Lily was sitting at the table being questioned.

A young officer placed a notepad in front of her, his tone not particularly aggressive, but his questions grew increasingly specific: when she had left Fitting Room Three, whether she had touched the display case, whether she knew the locker combination, and whether anyone had seen her holding the jewelry box.

Lily answered slowly.

She wasn't lying; she was just terrified.

Before answering every single question, she would glance at me first, as if reassuring herself that I was still standing there.

"I didn't touch the display case," she said. "I’m the only one who knows the locker combination, but the lock wasn't damaged. I don't know why the jewelry box was inside either."

The officer sitting opposite her looked up. "Besides you, who else knew the combination tonight?"

"No one."

"Did you tell any family, friends, or coworkers?"

Lily shook her head.

Watching Lily sit there, I remembered how proudly Grant had once shown her Everline’s founder wall.

He never told her my work belonged there too.

I had spent years believing that keeping quiet would preserve Lily’s relationship with her father.

Instead, it taught Grant that both of us could be pushed aside.

The officer closed his notebook. "We need to confiscate her phone to check for any messages related to the necklace or the locker."

"Fine," I said.

Lily’s phone had already been temporarily taken away.

She stared down at her empty hands, looking as though even the last thing that belonged to her had been stripped away.

Just then, there was a double knock on the door.

Grant walked in.

He glanced at the officers first to make sure they wouldn't stop him before turning his gaze to Lily. "I’d like to speak with your mother alone."

"I don't want to," Lily said.

Her voice was soft, but she didn't back down.

Grant’s expression stiffened.

He probably hadn't expected that the daughter who used to apologize to him first would refuse him at a time like this.

"Lily, I’m trying to help you."

"You didn't ask me if I was scared just now," she raised her eyes. "You only asked me if I knew anything."

Grant suppressed his emotions and turned to me. "Nora, outside for five minutes."

Knowing he wouldn't say what he actually wanted to say in front of Lily, I followed him to the end of the hallway.

Behind the doors, guests were still celebrating Everline’s charity launch while my daughter sat accused of theft.

Grant was not afraid Lily would be hurt.

He was afraid the company would look out of control.

“If Lily admits she made a mistake,” Grant said, “the company can keep this from becoming a formal charge. She leaves the internship quietly, takes some time away, and we protect what is left of her future.”

I stared at him.

“You want your daughter to confess to something she did not do.”

“I want to stop this from destroying everyone.”

“No,” I said. “You want to stop it from damaging Everline.”

"Do you know what’s inside Vanessa’s office?" I asked.

Grant’s eyes shifted slightly.

It was tiny, but it didn't escape me.

"Lily said she saw something there. The next day, the necklace showed up in her locker. Someone even shoved a threat note into her hand. Don't you want to ask what that was about?"

"She’s under too much pressure right now; she might be connecting unrelated things," Grant answered quickly. "Vanessa has been mentoring her and giving her plenty of opportunities. Don't treat everyone as an enemy just because of your own bias."

"I’m not treating everyone as an enemy," I said. "I’m just watching to see who’s in a rush to shut her up."

His face turned completely cold.

"You’re just like you used to be, always assuming that whenever you feel wronged, someone must be plotting against you."

Those words hurt deeper than I expected.

Not because they were new, but because I had heard them far too many times.

Whenever I discovered discrepancies in the company accounts, altered design credits, or bypassed client lists, Grant would use that exact tone to make me second-guess myself. He never needed to yell; as long as he painted me as an overly sensitive, stubborn woman who refused to look at the big picture, everyone else would automatically fill in the rest of his conclusions.

I used to be trapped by that tactic.

Not anymore.

"You’re right," I looked at him. "I used to be far too used to believing you."

I turned to leave, but he called out to me.

"Nora. Don't make Lily pay a price she can't afford."

I turned back. "Then you’d better stop deciding for her what she should bear."

When I returned to the breakroom, Lily had finished her statement.

She didn't ask what Grant and I had talked about right away; she just stared blankly at the tabletop.

I sat down beside her and placed my hand over hers.

"What did you see in Vanessa’s office?"

She took a breath and took a long moment before opening her mouth.

"It wasn't the necklace."

"I know."

“It was a stack of invoices. A lot of them, for huge amounts, but I had helped Claire organize the delivery receipts for that exact batch of gowns before—the quantities didn't match at all.”

She looked up, fear still sitting plainly in her eyes.

“When Vanessa came in, I told her I was only there for the seating chart. She smiled and said I was confusing an internship with permission to pry into things I didn’t understand.”

“What else did she say?”

Lily’s fingers tightened around mine.

“She said she had spent too long proving she belonged at Everline to let an intern make people question her. She said some people were born into rooms like that, but she had to earn her place every day.”

I said nothing.

Lily swallowed. “Then she said Dad hates it most when someone creates trouble for him at crucial moments.”

I didn't answer right away.

Because it suddenly struck me that Vanessa was not someone who made impulsive mistakes.

She had been controlling the narrative from the moment she walked through the door: showing concern first, then leaving Lily an exit strategy of ‘maybe it was just a lapse of judgment.’ She didn't accuse me publicly, yet made everyone see me as an emotional ex-wife.

If she really set up this trap, she must have calculated early on which side Grant would stand on.

An officer stepped back in and handed a document to me.

"Mrs. Bennett, given the current situation, Lily needs to temporarily leave the company premises and refrain from contacting any staff present tonight. We will notify you of further developments."

Lily’s fingertips trembled violently as she accepted the document.

The paper stated that her internship at Everline was suspended pending the investigation.

She had only been here for two months.

She had treated every task—sorting fabrics, verifying orders, steaming sample gowns—as a step closer to her dream.

Now, simply because of a necklace placed in her locker by someone else, she was shoved out that door.

I helped her up and guided her toward the exit.

When we passed Vanessa’s office, the door was already locked.

At the end of the hallway, Grant stood under the light, his head bowed as he took a call. He didn't look at us.

Lily suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"Mom," she whispered, "I just remembered. Vanessa didn't just ask me to get the seating chart that night."

"What else did she ask you to do?"

Lily looked at that tightly shut door, all color draining from her face bit by bit.

"She asked me to get a document out of the safe for her."

And that safe was the exact place where the real diamond necklace was kept.