Chapter 3

"I'll vouch for that."

He didn't even spare me a glance, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust. "Eleanor did say something like that."

"It's normal for scum from the streets like her to go crazy with envy when she sees a fifty-million-dollar pink diamond."

Every word was like a rusty, dull knife slicing into my nerves.

"Ethan, when did I ever say I'd steal something for money?" I bit down hard, tasting blood on my tongue. "Why are you giving false testimony for her?"

Ethan pulled out his phone. The screen was shoved directly into my face.

It was his latest social media post, already with tens of thousands of likes. The accompanying image was a surveillance screenshot of me searching for documents in the design studio last night.

The caption read: "Mistaking garbage for gold is the biggest stain on my life, Ethan Smith."

"Don't play innocent here." Ethan looked down at me. "You're always trying to worm your way into my life, aren't you, just for my money?"

"Now that you realize you can't get anything out of me, you've laid your grubby hands on the company's confidential assets?"

"Ethan, don't be so harsh on Eleanor." Chloe nestled closer to Ethan, looking like a frightened, pitiful kitten. "She might really be desperate."

She turned, addressing me in a condescending, charitable tone. "Eleanor, if you just hand over the pink diamond, we won't call the police. We can resolve this internally, okay?"

Mr. Davies impatiently tapped the table. "Eleanor, the public outcry is already out of control!"

"The PR department's phones are ringing off the hook with calls from investors!"

"If you don't produce the diamond, the company will fire you today and blacklist you across the entire industry!"

I straightened my spine, refusing to back down. "I didn't steal it."

"Go ahead and call the police. Investigate my income, search my apartment."

Hearing "search my apartment," Chloe's eye twitched violently. But she immediately raised her voice. "What good will searching her apartment do?"

"It's a fifty-million-dollar diamond! You could sell it at any black market or hide it in some sewer. Who would ever find it?"

"Eleanor, did you secretly mail the diamond overnight to your crazy brother at that special education school?"

My fists clenched. My brother isn't crazy! He just has Asperger's Syndrome! His talent in mathematics is far greater than anyone present!

Chloe was fabricating lies, even dragging my innocent brother into it, just to solidify my guilt.

"Chloe, spreading rumors and defamation, causing significant economic loss, can land you in jail." I stared at her.

"Me, spreading rumors?" Chloe suddenly sneered. She pulled out her phone, attached it to a selfie stick, and opened a live stream. The camera zoomed in on my face.

"Everyone! This is Eleanor, the thief who stole the fifty-million-dollar pink diamond!"

Chloe, who had been sneering a second ago, instantly burst into tears. "She won't even return the diamond, and she's threatening me!"

"The company's hard work, meant for the exhibition, all taken by her to squander on her psycho brother!"

The live stream instantly surged to over a hundred thousand viewers. The comments section was flooded with malicious curses.

[She looks so poor, turns out she's a thief!]

[Find out where she lives! Kill her whole family!]

Ethan stepped in front of the camera, wrapping an arm around Chloe's shoulder. He looked at me as if I were a pile of garbage.

"Don't worry, everyone, I'll hire the best legal team in New York for Chloe."

"We won't let any corporate scoundrel get away with it."

I looked at that loathsome couple. A wave of nausea washed over me.

So, five years of genuine affection had been thrown away on nothing.

"Ethan, do you really think I stole the diamond?"

"Do you really think you're worthy of my trust?"