Chapter 12 - The Trap
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Vanessa’s face paled perfectly, the blood draining from her cheeks as the dynamic in the room violently shifted against her.
“Sloppy?” Vanessa scoffed, trying to maintain her aristocratic arrogance. “I caught a thief in your house! I am protecting your assets!”
James let out a dark, humorless laugh that echoed off the concrete walls of the security room. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a sleek, black smartphone, tapping the screen a few times before holding it up.
“You assume I am a fool, Vanessa,” James said, his voice dropping back into a lethal, quiet register. “You assume that because I let you run the operations of my company, I don't monitor the people who walk through my front door.”
He pressed play on the phone.
The screen illuminated with a crisp, high-definition black-and-white video feed.
“I had covert security cameras installed in my private quarters three weeks ago,” James explained softly, ensuring every word cut deep. “Right after you threw a tantrum in my kitchen about a child coloring on my counter.”
I gasped, looking at the screen.
The video clearly showed the master closet from a high angle. It showed the timestamp from exactly two hours ago. It showed Vanessa Sterling slipping into the room, unlocking the display vault with a master override code, pulling the Patek Philippe watch out, and deliberately tossing it under the shoe rack.
The video was irrefutable. She had planted the evidence perfectly.
Vanessa stared at the phone, her mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish. The absolute, undeniable proof of her malice was staring her in the face.
“James, please,” Vanessa stammered, stepping backward, her hands trembling. “She’s manipulating you! She’s a gold-digger! I was just trying to show you that she doesn't belong in our world! I did it for you! For us!”
“There is no us, Vanessa. There never was,” James stated, his voice devoid of a single ounce of mercy. “You tried to frame the woman I care about for a felony. You threatened to have her daughter thrown into the foster system.”
He walked to the heavy metal door and pulled it open, signaling to the guards waiting outside in the hallway.
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“Escort Ms. Sterling off my property,” James ordered the shocked security team. “Contact corporate HR and have her severance package finalized by the end of the day. She is permanently terminated from Whitmore Hospitality. If she ever sets foot near this estate or contacts Grace again, you will call the police and hand them this video for criminal extortion and framing.”
Vanessa screamed as the guards grabbed her arms, hauling the disgraced executive down the hallway. Her shrieks of fury and humiliation faded away, leaving the estate blissfully, permanently silent.
