Chapter 6 - The Unblinking Eye
The security chief knelt down and pulled back the gold zipper. Nestled inside on a bed of dark velvet, contrasting sharply with the cheap lining of Emily's bag, lay the breathtaking diamond-style statement necklace.
Margaret gasped, covering her mouth in sheer disbelief. In a single heartbeat, the atmosphere shifted, and the entire room turned hostile toward Emily. Whispers of "thief" and "gutter trash" hissed through the crowd like venom.
Emily dropped to her knees, sobbing openly, shaking her head.
— "Please, I don't know how that got in there. I've been in the foyer all night! Mr. Sterling, please!"
Vanessa crossed her arms, a look of triumph barely concealed beneath her mask of outrage.
— "Call the police, Daniel. Have this wretched girl arrested."
Just as all hope seemed lost for the young maid, the main security monitor on the chief's tablet flickered. The chief frowned, tapping the screen, before looking up at Daniel with wide eyes. He handed the tablet to the young heir. Daniel’s eyes scanned the screen, his expression darkening into a terrifying, thunderous storm. He walked over to the grand wall projector used for the charity auction and plugged the tablet in.
The overhead CCTV footage rolled onto the massive screen in sharp black-and-white, stamped with a stark red timestamp. It displayed a crystal-clear angle of the foyer and the staff corridor.
There was Vanessa—standing alone by Emily's open bag, holding the exact same diamond necklace, and deliberately dropping it inside.
Emily had never even walked past it.
The crushing weight of the evidence instantly shattered Vanessa's fierce composure. Her fury vanished. Her eyes dilated in pure horror, and every ounce of color drained from her face.
Daniel turned his piercing gaze straight onto her, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade:
May you like
— "You framed her. The camera caught everything."
Vanessa stood completely paralyzed, devoid of any defense or explanation as the scene froze. The final, lingering close-up of the crowd fell back onto Emily—still weeping, still tenderly holding the bruised cheek where she had been struck, lowering her eyes as an absolute, suffocating silence blanketed the room.
