Chapter3

It was a gold ring. Before I could even process it, Mom let out a shriek and snatched it right out of the bag.

"This is mine! My wedding ring! It went missing last month—I’ve been looking for it for four damn weeks!"

She clutched the ring to her chest, tears welling up on cue. "I thought I had just misplaced it... but it was you all along!"

The living room erupted.

"She stole her own mother's wedding ring?"

"Once a thief, always a thief. She definitely took that twenty grand, too."

"She put on such a good act earlier. I almost bought it."

Mr. Grant simply shook his head, turned on his heel, and walked away. A bone-deep chill washed over me.

"I’ve never seen that ring in my life. You just went through this bag yourself. It was empty. How did it get in there?" No one answered me.

Liam already had his phone out. "I'm calling the cops. Chloe, let the police handle this. Don't get your hands dirty."

The police arrived shortly after. They took statements, inspected the ring, and then turned to me. "What about the missing twenty thousand in cash?"

"I never touched it!"

"She stole my wedding ring! She must have hidden the twenty thousand by now!" Mom sobbed loudly.

The officer looked at Chloe. "Are there security cameras in the house?"

"Yes," I cut in before anyone else could speak. "I installed the entire security system myself. I just tested it yesterday afternoon—every angle is fully functional."

Chloe opened the surveillance app and handed her phone over. Most of the feeds were perfectly normal. But the camera in the second-floor hallway and the one covering the living room wet bar had gone offline two days ago. There were zero backups in the cloud.

Chloe glared at me, her eyes red and welling with tears. "You installed the system yourself, and conveniently, these are the only two cameras that are broken? And you're still claiming you didn't do it!"

The way the officers looked at me subtly shifted.

The cash was gone. The ring was found in my bag. And the only cameras that were broken were the exact ones that could have proven my innocence. This wasn't a coincidence. I whipped my head to look at my parents. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"Just because I refused to pay for Chloe's wedding, you're setting me up like this?!"

Smack!

Chloe’s palm slapped hard across my cheek.

"Nora, are you even human? You steal Mom’s ring and then try to throw dirt on our own parents!" Chloe yelled. "We gave you an out earlier and you didn't take it. Stop playing the victim!"

Dad turned his head away appearing heartbroken, while Mom clutched the ring and dabbed at her eyes.

The officer flipped his notepad shut. "Ma'am, the amount involved here constitutes grand larceny. I need you to come down to the precinct with us for further questioning."

Unless those three changed their story, nothing I said would matter. The drafted confession letter still lay on the bar counter, the ink barely dry.

"Can I use the restroom first? I need to clean the cut on my hand."

The moment I locked the bathroom door, I slipped my old spare phone out of my boot. The voice memo was still recording. I let it run. With trembling fingers, I pulled up a browser and typed: Is a confession signed under duress legally binding?

I scrolled frantically until a specific line caught my eye: Documents signed under threat or coercion can be deemed legally void.

I was just reaching for the doorknob when hushed chuckles drifted through the wood.

"The cops are going to take her away in a minute. Dad, what's our next move?" It was Chloe.

Dad chuckled. "What's the rush? She doesn't have twenty grand lying around. I'll go talk to her in a second. I'll tell her to sign over that downtown condo to you to clear her debt. Once she signs the deed, you go tell the cops it was all a misunderstanding."

"Didn't she just finish paying the down payment on that place?" Mom asked.

"She paid the down payment, but the title will be Chloe's."

"Will she actually sign it, though? That girl is stubborn as a mule..."

"If she doesn't sign, she goes to prison. Grand larceny conviction, professional license revoked—what else could she possibly do with her life?" Dad paused for effect. "I know a public notary. We get it signed tonight, and it’s stamped and finalized tonight."

Chloe hesitated for a second. "But Dad... how exactly did Mom's ring get into her bag?"

"When she bumped into me and fell earlier, I slipped it into the inner pocket." Dad's voice dripped with smug satisfaction. "And I yanked the cables on the second-floor and living room cameras two days ago."

Chloe sounded stunned. "Then... what about the twenty grand?"

"Sitting in the trunk of my car."

A brief silence hung in the air.

Then Chloe burst out laughing. "Dad, you guys are brutal. That condo is in a prime location. It'll be perfect to rent out."

The three of them dissolved into giggles.

I bit down on the back of my hand so hard it bruised. My tears plummeted into the porcelain sink.

Mom’s voice chimed back in. "But after pulling a stunt like this, do you think she’ll ever come back home?"

"We'll just give her a call in a few months and sweet-talk her a little. You know how she is. Show her an ounce of affection, and she’ll come crawling right back like a kicked puppy."

"Good point. She’s been like that since she was a kid. She got a full-ride scholarship to college and didn't have the decency to split a single cent of it with her sister."

"Last month we asked her to pitch in two hundred grand for Chloe's wedding, and she claimed money was tight. Oh, money was tight, but she could afford to buy a downtown condo?"

"Once Chloe is married, we’ll transfer the deed to our house to her, too. When we're old, Chloe is the only one we can truly count on."

All these years of pouring my heart and soul into this family, and this was what it amounted to. To them, I was nothing more than a stray dog that would come wagging its tail the second they threw a bone.

Chloe didn’t have to lift a finger, and she was going to inherit everything they had. Meanwhile, I couldn’t even keep my own name clean.

I wiped my tears away. I hit stop on the voice memo, saved the file, and immediately backed it up to my secure cloud drive.

Then, I dialed a number.

When I pushed the bathroom door open, my parents were already waiting in the hall, a legal document in hand.

Dad slammed the paperwork down in front of me.

"Listen, Nora. You can't come up with the twenty grand, so you're going to use your condo as collateral. Sign this, and Chloe will tell the cops it was all a big misunderstanding. If you don't sign, you're leaving here in handcuffs."

Mom practically shoved a pen into my hand. "It's your choice. Just sign it, and we can still be a family."