Chapter 3: The Gilded Viper's Trap

The rain was a cold, relentless needle against my skin as I stood on the sidewalk, the red wine on my dress was now a smeared, pinkish stain. The limousine with the silver-gray eyes had vanished into the New York fog, leaving me with nothing but the shivering remains of my dignity.

I didn't go to a hotel. I went to the small, cramped studio apartment I had kept in the outskirts of Queens. You could say it was an orphan’s fallback that I had maintained for three years to keep Julian from suspecting my true reach.

I had just stepped out of a lukewarm shower when the heavy thud of a designer heel echoed in the hallway. My door didn't just open; it was kicked.

Sarah Vance stood there, looking like a high-fashion nightmare in her blood-red silk, flanked by two uniformed NYPD officers.

"I knew I would find you here now that you have nowhere else to go or anyone else to turn to." She ebily smirked.

The look in her eyes told me that she wasn't here for a chat, she had come with a dangerous agenda.

"Why are you here? What do you want? And why do I have the police in my house?" 

"There she is," Sarah purred, her melodic voice dripping with fake sorrow. "The little thief in her natural habitat."

"Sarah, get out," I said, my voice steady despite the roar of blood in my ears. "I will not have you walk into my home and disrespect me by accusing me of theft!" 

"Officers, that is the woman," Sarah said, ignoring me and pointing a manicured finger at my bedside table. "She was the one who stole the Thorne family’s heirloom diamond anklet during the Gala. I saw her slip it into her clutch before she was escorted out."

"Are you insane? Have you finally gone nuts?" I asked, my eyes widening out in terror.

One of the officers stepped forward, his face had a mask of professional boredom. He reached for the velvet box sitting on my nightstand, the same box Julian had carelessly tossed on our bed the night of our anniversary.

"I didn't steal that," I said, my burning eyes fixed on the officer. "It was a gift. Or a bribe. Depending on which lie Julian told tonight. And I have no idea how it got there to start with."

"A gift?" Sarah laughed, a shrill, mocking sound. "Julian would never give a piece of the Thorne legacy to a woman he just divorced. He gave that anklet to me, Elena. It was a gift to me. A token of our love, his affection for me and his family's approval. You are just a bitter, penniless orphan who couldn't handle being replaced and decided to steal it for yourself as a consolation price."

The officer clicked the box open. The diamonds glinted like shards of cold ice. "Ma'am, we all can see that Ms. Sarah is telling the truth. We are going to need you to come down to the station with us. Mr. Thorne has already filed the theft report."

"You mean to say that Julian is also in on this?" I scoffed. "I didn't know you had such a grip on me. I mean, see how he is rolling in the dirt with you, trying to pull down a woman who holds his entire existence in her hands." I said.

" Officers, please do your job. I am tired of listening to this mad dog go on and on with her nonsense. I have had enough of it! I just want to go back home with my precious diamonds and watch her undergo the appropriate punishment for being a thief."

Sarah leaned in as the officer reached for his handcuffs, the scent of her over-the-top perfume filling the small room.

"Things do not have to end like this, Elena," she whispered, her voice too low for the officers to hear. "We can settle amicably instead of you rotting in jail."

" And what do you propose?" I asked, knowing she was up to no good.

"All you need to do is to sign a full confession admitting that you are a fraud and a thief, and Julian might let you skip the jail cell. But if you don't..." She pulled a phone from her clutch, showing a live feed of an excavator sitting in front of the ruins of my childhood home. The only place where my birth records still existed. 

"I will have my father’s crew level the rest of that scorched estate to the ground by morning. You won't just be a thief, Elena. You will be a woman who officially never existed, a ghost."